On Nov 13, 2007 4:38 PM, Matthew Allum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> That was a demo to test the clutter API and essentially see how far we
> could push things and how long completely copying something like
> coverflow would take. We're kind of wooses when it comes to making it
> public-ally available as it is such a blatant and exact copy of Apples
> cover flow. Its unclear if it patented but we dont want to attract the
> wrong kind of attention and ultimately though it looks and acts very
> cool its just a boring unoriginal 'me too' rip off.
>

Having tried myself to replicate coverflow first completely from
scratch and lately using clutter, I would qualify the experience as a
great test of the abilities and ease of use of an advanced 2.5D and
animation toolkit. Indeed implementing a coverflow-like browser with
_all_ the little subtleties that are present in the Apple
implementation stresses many things:
- the animations are not as simple as one's may think at first sight
because cover flipping motions adapt (duration and motion) depending
on how many covers are being flipped at a time.
- all the animations need to be interruptible (for maximum reactivity
when the user decides to go backward). This is something clutter
doesn't really ease atm. I'm trying to see if I can come up with some
general API for this.
- At least on the mobile version of Coverflow, the shelf of covers
reacts with some inertia. Stresses some basic physics capabilities.
- with several thousands of covers, loading times can become quite
long and texture memory fills up quickly.

I guess all these things might be encountered in many other
non-standard UI, Now to what extent the toolkit need to help for these
?

regards,
Christophe
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