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<title>Clutter Reference Manual: Part I. Overview</title>
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<div><h1 class="title">
<a name="clutter-overview"></a>Part I. Overview</h1></div>
<div><div class="author">
<h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Emmanuele</span> <span class="surname">Bassi</span>
</h3>
<div class="affiliation"><div class="address"><p><br>
<code class="email"><<a class="email" href="mailto:ebassiopenedhand.com">ebassi<em class="parameter"><code>openedhand.com</code></em></a>></code><br>
</p></div></div>
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<div class="partintro">
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<p>Clutter is a GObject based library for creating fast, visually
rich, graphical user interfaces.</p>
<p>Clutter works by manipulating a scene-graph of 2D surfaces, or
'actors', inside a 3D space.</p>
<p><a class="link" href="ClutterActor.html" title="ClutterActor"><span class="type">ClutterActor</span></a> is the base class for such surfaces. All
<a class="link" href="ClutterActor.html" title="ClutterActor"><span class="type">ClutterActor</span></a>s can be positioned, scaled and rotated in 3D space.
In addition, other properties can be set, such as 2D clipping, children and
opacity. Tranforms applied to a parent actor also apply to any children.
Actors are also able to receive events.</p>
<p>Subclasses of <a class="link" href="ClutterActor.html" title="ClutterActor"><span class="type">ClutterActor</span></a> include <a class="link" href="ClutterStage.html" title="ClutterStage"><span class="type">ClutterStage</span></a>, <a class="link" href="ClutterTexture.html" title="ClutterTexture"><span class="type">ClutterTexture</span></a>,
<a class="link" href="ClutterText.html" title="ClutterText"><span class="type">ClutterText</span></a>, <a class="link" href="ClutterRectangle.html" title="ClutterRectangle"><span class="type">ClutterRectangle</span></a>, <a class="link" href="ClutterCairoTexture.html" title="ClutterCairoTexture"><span class="type">ClutterCairoTexture</span></a>, <a class="link" href="ClutterGroup.html" title="ClutterGroup"><span class="type">ClutterGroup</span></a> and
<a class="link" href="ClutterBox.html" title="ClutterBox"><span class="type">ClutterBox</span></a>. <a class="link" href="ClutterActor.html" title="ClutterActor"><span class="type">ClutterActor</span></a>s are added to a parent, transformed
and then made visible.</p>
<p><a class="link" href="ClutterStage.html" title="ClutterStage"><span class="type">ClutterStage</span></a> is the top level <a class="link" href="ClutterActor.html" title="ClutterActor"><span class="type">ClutterActor</span></a> - it's the
representation of a window, or framebuffer. It is created automatically
when Clutter is initialised. <a class="link" href="ClutterStage.html" title="ClutterStage"><span class="type">ClutterStage</span></a> is a <a class="link" href="ClutterGroup.html" title="ClutterGroup"><span class="type">ClutterGroup</span></a>, a class
implementing the <a class="link" href="ClutterContainer.html" title="ClutterContainer"><span class="type">ClutterContainer</span></a> interface.</p>
<p>Clutter allows explicit positioning and sizing through the
<a class="link" href="ClutterFixedLayout.html" title="ClutterFixedLayout"><span class="type">ClutterFixedLayout</span></a> layout manager; and implicit positioning and sizing
through fluid layout managers like <a class="link" href="ClutterBoxLayout.html" title="ClutterBoxLayout"><span class="type">ClutterBoxLayout</span></a>, <a class="link" href="ClutterFlowLayout.html" title="ClutterFlowLayout"><span class="type">ClutterFlowLayout</span></a>
and <a class="link" href="ClutterTableLayout.html" title="ClutterTableLayout"><span class="type">ClutterTableLayout</span></a>. Actors inside fixed layout managers like
<a class="link" href="ClutterGroup.html" title="ClutterGroup"><span class="type">ClutterGroup</span></a> and <a class="link" href="ClutterStage.html" title="ClutterStage"><span class="type">ClutterStage</span></a> can also be positioned and sized implicitly
using the <a class="link" href="ClutterConstraint.html" title="ClutterConstraint"><span class="type">ClutterConstraint</span></a> sub-classes.</p>
<p><a class="link" href="ClutterTimeline.html" title="ClutterTimeline"><span class="type">ClutterTimeline</span></a>s provide the basis for Clutter's animation
utilities. <a class="link" href="ClutterActor.html" title="ClutterActor"><span class="type">ClutterActor</span></a>s can be animated using explicit animations
through the various <a class="link" href="ClutterBehaviour.html" title="ClutterBehaviour"><span class="type">ClutterBehaviour</span></a> implementations, or implicit
animations, through the <a class="link" href="clutter-Implicit-Animations.html#clutter-actor-animate" title="clutter_actor_animate ()"><code class="function">clutter_actor_animate()</code></a> function. Animations can
also be defined as named states through the <a class="link" href="ClutterState.html" title="ClutterState"><span class="type">ClutterState</span></a> class.</p>
<p>Clutter further contains a number of utilities, including;
<a class="link" href="ClutterScript.html" title="ClutterScript"><span class="type">ClutterScript</span></a> - for loading 'UI definition' files formatted in
<a class="ulink" href="http://json.org" target="_top">JSON</a>; <a class="link" href="clutter-Shaders.html#ClutterShader"><span class="type">ClutterShader</span></a> - a
class for applying GPU shaders to actors, <a class="link" href="ClutterModel.html" title="ClutterModel"><span class="type">ClutterModel</span></a> - a utility class
for MVC list type implementations; <a class="link" href="ClutterAction.html" title="ClutterAction"><span class="type">ClutterAction</span></a>s,
<a class="link" href="ClutterConstraint.html" title="ClutterConstraint"><span class="type">ClutterConstraint</span></a>s and <a class="link" href="ClutterEffect.html" title="ClutterEffect"><span class="type">ClutterEffect</span></a>s.</p>
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