1 Overview of AKFAvatar

AKFAvatar is a graphical program and a library, where an avatar appears on the screen, and tells things to the user written in a balloon. There can also be recorded audio files, so that the user even can hear, what it is saying.

AKFAvatar can be used in several different ways. I list them here from the most simple one to the most complicated for advanced users.

1. You can use the program avatarsay as a text-terminal, just like xterm, but being much more fun. In contrast to xterm it might even run without an x-server. (Under Windows this function is not available.)
2. You can use it as wrapper for your textmode programs. (Under Windows this function is not available.)
3. The command avatarsay can be used as a fancy text-viewer, more or less like more or less.

   It is not suited for long, complicated texts, but rather for short and funny stuff.

4. But the command avatarsay can do much more than that. It can be used as a simple scripting language for making demos that you can show for example at an information booth or in a shop's window.

   Don't worry, it sounds more complicated, than it is. I should rather say, you can spice up your texts with occasional commands. Then you can set the executable bit on your... “text”, and it is executable.

5. Then there is the library libakfavatar, which you can use from compiling languages. Currently Free Pascal, GNU-Pascal and C are supported. Especially the Pascal language is suited for beginners to learn how to program. The library is simple to use, like writing command-line programs — but it's much more fun!

1.1 General usage (keys)

When an AKFAvatar program runs in a window, you can of course use the close button of your window manager for stopping the program. You can also always stop the program by pressing the key combination <Alt>+<Q>, for example when it runs in fullscreen mode. Often you can also stop the program by pressing the <Esc> key. But this key might be reserved for other things, for example in the terminal-mode of avatarsay.

You can press the <Pause> key at any time to pause the running process. Press any other key to continue again.

On some systems you can use the key combinations <Alt>+<Enter> or <Crtl>+<Alt>+<F> to toggle between the fullscreen and the window mode. Often you can also simply use the key <F11>, but this key might be reserved for other things, for example in the terminal-mode of avatarsay.

When AKFAvatar runs in a window you can resize the window as you wish. The content doesn't get resized, but it is centered on the window. You cannot resize it beyond a minimal size. You can of course also maximize the window. When you minimize the window the program continues to print the text. So you probably want to press the <Pause> key before you minimize the window.