
       ~Slackermedia's~
     .+----------------+.
     | SMPTE Calqulator |
     `+----------------+'
         |
         |
        \ /
p--------`------q
| DESCRIPTION   |
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SMPTE Calqulator is a SMPTE Timecode calculator written in Python using the powerful, cross-platform GUI toolkit, Qt.  It can add or subtract timecode in any variety of Frames Per Second, with dropframe correction where necessary.


p------------------------q
|  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS   |
b------------------------d

Operating Systems:
    Linux, BSD, Illumos, Mac OS X, or Windows

Required Dependencies:
    Qt 4.6 or above
    http://qt.nokia.com/products/

    Python 2.5 or above

    pyQt (which requires sip)
    http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/software/pyqt/download

    sip
    http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/software/sip/download


p----------------q
|--INSTALLATION--|
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  --> Linux/BSD/Illumos

Quite possibly, it will just work.  You almost certainly have python already, and possibly you'll already have PyQt.

If you don't have one of these two things, simply install it via your package manager (something like "rpm -i python" or "apt-get install python pyqt" or "port install pyqt", and so on).

You can run the calculator from any directory by typing "python smptecalq.pyw"

You can install the calculator to your system for all users to access by using the install.sh (run it as root), or to just your local ~/bin if you don't have root permission.

The installer therefore can be run with either a --system or a --user flag to define which method you'd lke to use for the install.

After that, you should be able to run the application by typing in "smptecalq" from a commandline, or adding it as an item in whatever menu you might be running on your desktop.


  --> Mac OS X

Because this application has a GUI, you will need to install Qt, and then PyQt on Mac OS X for it to run.  PyQt requires something called "sip" (no relation to VOIP).  Both of these are available from riverbankcomputing.co.uk

These are all really great unixy apps and are well worth having on your system, so you may as well install all of them now.  It seems silly to do it all for a simply SMPTE calculator, but once you do, you'll end up finding all kinds of cool new stuff for your Mac.

First of all, Mac OS X doesn't ship with "developer tools" (that's what they call GCC and cmake and other basic compiling applications which, apparently, only developers use?), you will have to install those as well.

So...

1. Download and install the Mac OS X developer tools, or install from your original installation media (the OS X disc you got with your computer or bought from the store).  This will be in the form of a .mpkg or .pkg, so all you will have to do is double-click it and it will install.

2. Download and install Qt for Mac.  This is an extremely easy install as well.

3. Download and compile the sip code.  This will be a little scary but it's not as hard as you might think.  Just open a terminal, and remember you can drag and drop stuff to. 
   a. tar -xf sip-4.12.1.tar.gz (you can drag and drop that file into the Terminal if you need to)
   b. cd sip-4.12.1 (you can also drag and drop that folder)
   c. python configure.py
   d. make
   e. sudo make install

4. Download and compile PyQt.
   a. tar -xf PyQt-mac-gpl-4.8.3.tar.gz
   b. cd PyQt-mac-gpl-4.8.3
   c. python configure.py
   d. make
   e. sudo make install

And now you can run smptecalq!


  --> Windows 

I have no experience on Windows so I cannot write a guide on using this application on it.  I do know that all the technologies used in this application are cross-platform, so they should all work as long as you know how to install them all.  Anyone who wants to write instructions on how to do this is welcome to add to this README file.


p---------q
|--USAGE--|
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Using smptecalq is intuitive, but it's worth noting that navigation can also be done entirely on the keyboard using the TAB key and RETURN key; that is, don't feel that you actually have to click around to manipulate the data.  Rather than clicking on the drop-down menus, you can just type the value and the menu will change to that value for you.


p--------q
| BUGS   |
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You can alert me of any bugs at my email address, which is klaatu at member dot fsf.org

Enjoy!