Linux Letters and Numbers
=========================

By Kirk Ismay, <captain@netidea.com>
 http://www.netidea.com/~captain/
 http://lln.sourceforge.net/

This is based on my daughters (formerly) favorite game, Larry's
Learning Letters and Numbers. This is a Linux replacement, written from
scratch, with many improvements.  It was built using the GTK (Gimp 
ToolKit) for X.  It presently works with 1.0.x to 1.2.6, but images 
load faster with the newer library.

This latest release features keyboard input and responds to all mouse buttons.
Now includes Colin Ligertwood's Wav Tools for sound playback. 

For more information about the GTK check out:
 http://www.gtk.org
For information about the GDK_Imlib:
 http://www.labs.redhat.org/imlib/
 
The original game was written for Windows, and can be found at:
 http://www.lawrencegoetz.com

It is intended for children 2 and up, and is a fun learning game.  It 
helps younger chilren learn their letters and numbers, while older 
children will improve their spelling, and vocabulary skills.  It also 
helps them develop important keyboard and mouse skills too.

Requirements
============

This game requires the gtk and gdk-imlib libraries and development headers.
I recommend getting version 1.2.6, but 1.0.x will do. 

The Debian packages are 'gdk-imlib-dev' and 'libgtk1.2-dev'.  
I've also built this game on OpenBSD. There are prepackaged binaries in the ports part of the distribution.

GTK information: http://www.gtk.org/
GDK_IMLIB info: http://www.labs.redhat.com/imlib/

Features
======== 

* Extensible - add new images yourself without having to make changes 
  to the program.

* Dynamic - each letter or number can be represented by numerous pictures,
  each being displayed randomly.  

* Flexible - you can even have more than one picture for a given word,
  by using a simple versioning scheme (ie Apple.1.xpm, Apple.2.xpm) 

* Interesting - because you can change the game, its different 
  every time!

Adding Pictures
===============

1. Scale your picture to make it fit (if needed). It should be no more than
   450x350 pixels for best results.  The Gimp is excellent for this ;-)

2. Copy it to the lletters/images subdirectory 
   (/usr/share/lletters/images/ by default).  Give it the name of the 
   word (ie Balloon.xpm), as this will be used by the program to display 
   the word as a caption.

3. Start the game and enjoy.