= Introduction

   Allegro is a cross-platform library intended for use in computer games 
   and other types of multimedia programming. It was initially conceived on 
   the Atari ST, but that platform sadly died during childbirth. After a 
   brief stay with Borland C, it was adopted by the fantastic djgpp 
   compiler, where it grew to maturity. In the fullness of time it gave 
   birth to children of its own, who went to live in such exotic locations 
   as DirectX and the X Server, but the entire family is now back together 
   again, living in harmony as a single portable entity. How about that for 
   a mixture of metaphors? :-)

   A wide range of extension packages and add-on modules are also available, 
   which can be found in the "Library Extensions" section of the Allegro.cc
   website, http://www.allegro.cc/.

   According to the Oxford Companion to Music, Allegro is the Italian for 
   "quick, lively, bright". It is also a recursive acronym which stands for 
   "Allegro Low Level Game Routines".