AKFAvatar

Version: 0.17.0

AKFAvatar is software mainly for GNU+Linux, where an image of an avatar appears on the screen and tells things written in a balloon. First the avatar moves slowly in from the right side. Then text is shown in a balloon.

The program avatarsay can be used as a fancy user interface for textconsole programs¹, or as a fancy text-reader or manpage-viewer¹. Furthermore the program supports some basic commands, so it can be used as a scripting-language for simple demos.

Please check out the Max and Maurice Demo!

You can use the libakfavatar library from your own C programs. There is also a rather mature Pascal-binding for GNU-Pascal and Free Pascal.

Important: AKFAvatar migrated away from CVS to Git.

Status:

• Alpha (under construction, but usable)
• News — (Feed)
• ChangeLog (current development state)

Author:

• Andreas K. Förster

Source:

• akfavatar-0.17.0.tar.bz2 (signature)
• Git repository

Binaries for avatarsay:

• GNU+Linux:
  akfavatar-0.17.0.bin.gnu-linux.x86.tar.bz2 (signature)
• Windows 95 or newer: (just partly supported)
  akfavatar-0.17.0.bin.w32.zip (signature)
  Items marked with ¹ are not relevant for Windows.

Additional Software:

• required: SDL-1.2
  You need the “Runtime Libraries” as well as the “Development Libraries”!
• recommended: SDL_image for extended functionality
• optional: XdgUtils¹

Demos:

Hint: press F11 for fullscreen-mode and Pause for a pause.

• Max and Maurice Demo (5.8MB, English version without audio, Public Domain)
• Max und Moritz Demo (14MB, German version with audio, Public Domain)

Manual:

• AKFAvatar Manual as HTML
• AKFAvatar Manual as PDF (A4)
• AKFAvatar Manual as compressed PostScript (A4)
• other formats and languages

Other websites:

• Savannah project
• Free Software Directory
• AKFAvatar in the german LinuxWiki
• New: AKFAvatar and a role-playing game TextRPG (German)

Alternate download-sites:

• USA (main server)
• Germany
• France
• Canada
• Taiwan

Communication:

Note: to post a message on savannah when you are not logged in, you have to enter a given number at the bottom of the form. That is a basic anti-spam test.

• Discussion Forum: browse items or submit an item
• Bug-reports: browse items or submit items

License:

• GPLv3 or any later version

Notes about the license:

• The GPL is only relevant for you, if you want to give copies to others. If you use the software in private for your own use or your own pleasure, there are no obligations at all.
• You are welcome to share copies of the software. For example you can put them on your own website. But please keep in mind, that you also have to make the source code available then.
• The library is also licensed under the GPL version 3. It is not licensed under the LGPL and there is no linking exception.
• This means, if you publish a program that is linked with the library, you are bound by the terms of the GPL and your software must be published under the same license.
• Programs running in the terminal emulation or use pipes to communicate with avatarsay are however separate entities and are not bound by the GPL. Such programs may be distributed together with AKFAvatar (look for the keyword “aggregate” in the GPL).

¹ Items marked with ¹ are not relevant for Windows.

AKFAvatar was inspired by cowsay. (Comparison with cowsay)