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README for profit
=================

Profit is an Open Flight file format support library released as open
source.  This file contains general information about the library.
For compilation and installation information, refer to the file named
INSTALL.  For copyright and license information, refer to the file
named COPYING.  Changes in profit since the first release are described
in the file named ChangeLog.  Documentation on how to program with
profit can be found in MANUAL.


0. CONTENTS
===========

1. FUNCTIONALITY
2. TECHNICAL SUPPORT
3. LICENSE INFORMATION
A. TRADEMARKS


1. FUNCTIONALITY
================

Profit is a C library for reading and writing Open Flight files, and for
traversing the Open Flight models once they are loaded.  The name profit
is sort of an acronym for PRogrammer's Open FlIghT.

The focus of the library is primarily on loading Open Flight files,
traversing Open Flight files for geometry extraction, and saving Open Flight
files.  The intended purpose of profit has been on supporting Open Flight
importing and exporting, and not to be the main library in an Open Flight-
based application.

Not much functionality has been created for modifying the Open Flight models,
but modification is possible if you understand how the Open Flight data
structures are set up in memory.  Systems in Motion is using profit in the
polygon-reducer product called Rational Reducer with great success without
having to write too much external code for creating the modified (reduced)
model.  Most modifications has to be done directly against the structures
though, and can therefore be somewhat hairy to get right.

A sample program is included in the directory examples/flt2vrml/ which will
convert an Open Flight file (only the polygon data) to a VRML 1.0 file.


2. TECHNICAL SUPPORT
====================

Systems in Motion (SIM) has no obligation to provide technical support for
the BSD-licensed version of profit.  If resources permit, however, SIM will
of course try to be as helpful as possible.  Do not bother MultiGen, Inc.
for support since they have had nothing to with the implementation of profit.

SIM has set up two mailing lists for profit support.

profit-announce
  This mailing list is for announcements regarding profit.  New releases,
  new functionality, license information, this kind of stuff.
  This list is moderated (read-only).  Very low-traffic.

profit-discuss
  This mailing list is for discussing profit.  Technical support can be
  provided through this discussion forum.  Followups to announcements
  in profit-announce should also be directed to this list.
  This list is open for posting for all subscribers.  Also low-traffic.

To subscribe to either of the two lists, send an email to SIM's mailing
list manager at <[email protected]> with a subject line with the format
"subscribe <listname>".  To unsubscribe, use a subject line with the
format "unsubscribe <listname>".  Do not include brackets around the
mailing list name.  For general information about SIM's mailing list
manager, use "help" as the subject line.


3. LICENSE INFORMATION
======================

Profit is released publicly under the 3-clause BSD license (see the file named COPYING).

A. TRADEMARKS
=============

Open Flight is a trademark of MultiGen, Inc.