blRtx

blRtx is a .NET 2.0 component which is a wrapper to Inca RTX. It attempts to make RTX development simpler and follows all the standard .NET conventions for components. blRtx was originally conceived several years ago as a wrapper for RTX 5.0 but has been modernized by making it Inca capable and .NET 2.0 savvy. Currently, the component only supports .NET 2.0 mainly because it makes use of generics and new property visibility features. Making blRtx support .NET 1.0 or 1.1 is only a few hours of extra work and if anyone has interest, I'd be happy to make it support older versions of .NET. For my own purposes, all new development is now .NET 2.0 so I wanted to make use of anything in 2.0 which could improve blRtx.

blRtx is made up of the following classes:

Note that there's no Rtx, RtxContext, Font, Color, Palette and many of the other RtxLib interfaces. blRtx has attempted to create a simpler RTX while still providing most of the capabilities we've learned to love. However, the class design relies on the need for defining all graphics as images, layouts (using RTX tags), vias and clips. So, things like RtxContext.DrawString are no longer supported. Instead, a layout with an RTX tag must be used for this purpose. This may seem like a step backwards but I believe that from a maintenance point of view, this is a safer way to go.

A C# Helloworld for blRtx looks like: 
void FormHelloWorld_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    m_surface = new Surface(0); // an overloaded constructor - what a concept! This constructor says create a surface for board 0
    m_layout = new Layout("helloworld.ins", "helloworld"); // this constructor takes a playlist and layout name as arguments
    m_layout.tags["hello"].text = "Hello World";

    m_trans = new Transition();
    m_trans.surface = m_source;
    m_trans.SetSource(m_layout); // SetSource supports overloading so it can accepts surfaces, layouts or images
    m_trans.Done += new Transition.DoneHandler(Done);
}

void buttonHelloWorld_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    m_trans.TakeAt(new Timecode() + new Timecode(0, 0, 2, 0)); // take at in 2 seconds - setups on surfaces and effects are optional
}

void Done(object sender, EventArgs e) {
    MessageBox.Show("Done!");
}

Surface m_source, m_dest;
Layout m_layout;
Transition m_trans;
Where's the source code? I'm still contemplating what to do with blRtx. If anyone wants to see the source code, please email me at ghentsch@blsoft.ca and I'll make it available.

What makes this component better than the current com server? Well, in some ways, it's not because I've trimmed the features. But the component is certainly leaner and potentially easier to use and understand. Some of the .NET specific improvements are: What's on the to do list for blRtx. Well, I wish I had the source code to RTX. That would allow me to build a true native component. But, that's not going to happen so what else can we expect to see from blRtx:
The cutlist is probably the biggest immediate deficiency in blRtx. The cutlist I'm using is nice because it uses a generic collection class but I need to take it a step further and support dynamic cutlists, trimming and matte files. That's probably the next thing on my list.

I'd appreciate any feedback on blRtx; what you like, what you don't like and what's missing will give me valuable feedback. blRtx is available for download at: http://www.blsoft.ca/downloads/blRtx.zip

Georg Hentsch
Bannister Lake Software Inc.
http://www.blsoft.ca
ghentsch@blsoft.ca