200 lines
9.5 KiB
HTML
200 lines
9.5 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en-AU">
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<head>
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<title>Photon iFAQ (inFrequently Asked Questions)</title>
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<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<!-- cut here for DevBlog -->
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<ul>
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<li><strong>General Questions</strong>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#ans1-1">What is Photon?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans1-2">Where do I get Photon?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans1-3">How do I build Photon?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans1-4">Does Photon use proprietary libraries like DirectX?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans1-5">When will features X, Y, and Z be completed?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans1-6">What if I have something to add?</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><strong>Usage Questions</strong>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#ans2-1">How do I compile a Photon application?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans2-2">Are there any tutorials?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans2-3">I am using Photon, can I tell the world?</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><strong>Licensing Questions</strong>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#ans3-1">How is Photon licensed?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans3-2"> Why is Photon licensed like that, why not use LGPL or something?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans3-3">I don't get it. What can I do with Photon?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans3-4">So what can't I do with Photon?</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><strong>History Questions</strong>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#ans4-1">Photon seems familiar.. where have I seen a similar API before?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans4-2">Why shouldn't I use ZEngine?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans4-3">Why should I use ZEngine?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans4-4">Wasn't there some GUI lib for ZEngine?</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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<li><strong>Other Questions</strong>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#ans5-1">You are a king, can I give you money?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans5-2">How can I be as great as you?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans5-3">What else are you working on?</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ans5-4">Want to work on something with me?</a></li>
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</ul></li>
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</ul>
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<hr />
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<h2>General Questions</h2>
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<h3><a name="ans1-1">What is Photon?</a></h3>
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<p>Photon is an API which is designed primarily to ease creation of hardware
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accelerated 2D games with OpenGL and other open source & cross platform
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libraries. Photon aims to simplify portable game development, enabling
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developers to focus on the gameplay. Photon uses OpenGL for hardware
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accelerated rotation, alpha blending, resizing, and drawing. Photon is built
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entirely on free software, using libraries like GLFW, PhysFS, OpenAL, and
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boost. Using Photon does not require knowledge of any of these libraries as
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their needed functionality is wrapped entirely within Photon's rich class
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library so that anyone with a decent grasp of C++ can use Photon.
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<br /><br />
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Photon is a cross platform API, designed to run on as many operating systems
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as possible, and OS support is only limited by libraries which Photon
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depends on, at the moment Photon should run on Windows, Linux, OSX, and
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other Operating Systems which have OpenGL support.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans1-2">Where do I get Photon?</a></h3>
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<p><a href="http://photon.sourceforge.net">http://photon.sourceforge.net</a>
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is the home page.
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<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/photon/">http://sourceforge.net/projects/photon/</a>
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is the project page.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans1-3">How do I build Photon?</a></h3>
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<p>At the moment building photon relies upon SCons. As of Photon 0.0.2 experimental
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project files are available for <a href="http://www.codeblocks.org/">Code::Blocks</a>
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and <a href="http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html">Dev-C++</a>.
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Visual C++ project files are a high priority.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans1-4">Does Photon use proprietary libraries like DirectX?</a></h3>
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<p>Photon only uses free open source libraries, so that by using Photon you are
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not subjected to any proprietary licensing terms.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans1-5">When will features X, Y, and Z be completed?</a></h3>
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<p>When I get to them, I can only work on Photon in my spare time, if you have a
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specific request let me know and I can give you an estimate of when I plan
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on getting to it. There's always the option that you help out and then the
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feature will be added sooner rather than later.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans1-6">What if I have something to add?</a></h3>
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<p> Feel free to contribute to Photon, bugfixes are greatly appreciated. Not
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all submitted features can be accepted, but I'll usually at least add a
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link to your submission if it cannot be included in the standard
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distribution for some reason. (Extensions to Photon which uses non-free
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or non-portable libraries fall into this category, I appreciate them
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but usually won't make them part of the standard distribution.)</p>
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<h2>Usage Questions</h2>
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<h3><a name="ans2-1">How do I compile a Photon application?</a></h3>
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<p>That depends upon your compiler, generally there are several things that
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need to be done:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>When compiling make sure all includes are in the include path of your compiler.</li>
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<li>When linking make sure all libraries are in the library path of your compiler.</li>
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<li>Ensure that you link against photon and all dependency libraries (photon, GLFW, OpenAL, OpenGL, GLU, PhysFS, Corona, and Freetype).</li>
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<li>If you are using OpenAL, be sure to define PHOTON_USE_OPENAL</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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On a command line compiler like g++ this would look something like:</p>
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<pre>
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g++ -DPHOTON_USE_OPENAL -c -o test.o test.cpp
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g++ -o test test.o -lphoton -lglfw -lopenal -lGL -lGLU -lphysfs -lcorona -lfreetype
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</pre>
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<h3><a name="ans2-2">Are there any tutorials?</a></h3>
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<p>No. Well not yet, I do have intent to write basic tutorials on using
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Photon, as well as porting some existing tutorials on various subjects to
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Photon.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans2-3">I am using Photon, can I tell the world?</a></h3>
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<p>Sure, if you're using it and you feel comfortable admitting that, I admire
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your honesty. In all seriousness, this is greatly appreciated, and greatly
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beneficial to the Photon community, the more people using it the more people
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to help find bugs, suggest features, and maybe some of them will think of
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something cool to add for the rest of us.</p>
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<h2>Licensing Questions</h2>
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<h3><a name="ans3-1">How is Photon licensed?</a></h3>
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<p>Photon is licensed under a zlib-style license, see LICENSE.html. </p>
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<h3><a name="ans3-2">Why is Photon licensed like that, why not use LGPL or something?</a></h3>
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<p>First of all, I prefer zlib licensed libraries, as you can see, Photon
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depends primarily on zlib licensed libraries. I also don't feel that I
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should try to restrict what people do with Photon, as the people who will
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try to steal work aren't going to care what license it was under in the
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first place.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans3-3">I don't get it. What can I do with Photon?</a></h3>
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<p>You are allowed to do almost anything you want with Photon including use it
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in commercial applications.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans3-4">So what can't I do with Photon?</a></h3>
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<p>You cannot claim you wrote it, distribute altered versions that are not
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clearly marked as such, or remove or alter the license of the Photon
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source. You also cannot sue me for damages if Photon hurts you, your
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pet, or your feelings.</p>
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<h2>History Questions</h2>
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<h3><a name="ans4-1">Photon seems familiar.. where have I seen a similar API before?</a></h3>
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<p>Photon used to be ZEngine, but when I decided to do a major rewrite the name
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changed. I am the author of both ZEngine and Photon, but thank you for your
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concern.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans4-2">Why shouldn't I use ZEngine?</a></h3>
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<p>Photon does practically everything ZEngine did, but is being actively
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developed. Photon also uses a fairly different design than ZEngine, which I
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hope most will enjoy.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans4-3">Why should I use ZEngine?</a></h3>
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<p>In case you want to port to a platform with no OpenGL, or maybe you like
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the letter 'Z' before every class name. If you hate the new style, and
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would prefer to kick it old school, ZEngine is a fine choice.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans4-4">Wasn't there some GUI lib for ZEngine?</a></h3>
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<p>Yes, Gewi was the GUI for ZEngine, and was separate from the core of
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ZEngine. In Photon Gewi will become photon::gui, but is not yet completed.
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Because of the modular core method and resource management, the inside has
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been rewritten, and a number of bugs have been fixed. photon::gui will be
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a major improvement over Gewi.</p>
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<h2>Other Questions</h2>
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<h3><a name="ans5-1">You are a king, can I give you money?</a></h3>
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<p>Sure.. I guess, I'd prefer you donate it to a better project than Photon
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but if you have to donate money to me because you're using Photon in some
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amazing application and you feel guilty making millions off of my "hard"
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work.. email me, I'll try to talk you out of it, or suggest a better use
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of funds.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans5-2">How can I be as great as you?</a></h3>
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<p>Help me out on Photon.. write some documentation, anything, if you're not
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sure how to help, email me, I'll let you know what needs to be done.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans5-3">What else are you working on?</a></h3>
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<p>That's a secret right now.</p>
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<h3><a name="ans5-4">Want to work on something with me?</a></h3>
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<p>Depending on how much time I have, and how interested I am in the project,
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maybe. If you want me to work on something I'd love to hear from you,
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even if I don't have time at the moment. If the project in question
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uses Photon you get bonus points, but is not a requirement for me to work
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with you.</p>
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<p><em>$Id: IFAQ.html,v 1.2 2005/11/15 06:01:12 cozman Exp $</em></p>
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<!-- cut here for DevBlog -->
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</body>
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</html>
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