disd@hubcap.UUCP (Gary Heffelfinger) (04/15/88)
Those of you who're Star Trek fans and regular rec.arts.startrek readers will know that there's been some discussion going on there about posting digitized photos. There was the usual argument about which format was best for the job. Someone took the initiative and posted several uuencoded binaries of GIF format pictures. Now I know nothing about GIF and precious little about IFF, but I think my A1000 would look right handsome with some Star Trek pictures on its screen. The poster claimed that GIF reading programs have been done for many more machines than competing formats. I have seen no such program for our beloved machine so I thought I'd ask this group. A GIF reader would be dandy, a GIF to IFF converter would be okay too. Any ideas? Oh yeah, and let's please not argue the merits of IFF over GIF. I know where GIF comes from. I know that it caters to lots of machines so it might not be optimal for the Amiga. I'd just like to see some of these images on my monitor. Forgive me if this has been beaten to death before. These newly posted images have gotten me interested in a subject which has interested me very little in the past. -Gary -- Gary R. Heffelfinger Employed by, but not the disd@hubcap.clemson.edu mouthpiece of, Clemson University "If you prick me, do I not...onion?" <--<< .signature version 2.0
kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (04/16/88)
In article <1419@hubcap.UUCP>, disd@hubcap.UUCP (Gary Heffelfinger) writes: > > The poster claimed > that GIF reading programs have been done for many more machines than > competing formats. I have seen no such program for our beloved machine > so I thought I'd ask this group. A GIF reader would be dandy, a GIF to > IFF converter would be okay too. Any ideas? Yes. Stop by your local BBS or information service, and pick one up! This was done for the Amiga a while back, and I've seen it on GEnie, CI$, and the BBS's I frequent. Never downloaded it, as I never ran across any GIF'd images, so I dunno if it is a converter, or a viewer. Amazingly, a grep of my (complete) Fish Disk listing failed turn up any sign of it, so I guess there *is* at least *one* useful tool that Fred somehow missed ... :-) /kim P.S. The filename was something like "GIF.ARC", or similar. -- UUCP: kim@amdahl.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,ihnp4,uunet,oliveb,cbosgd,ames}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CIS: 76535,25
avery@puff.cs.wisc.edu (Aaron Avery) (04/16/88)
A while ago I found a program called 'giffy' on some bulletin board which
claims to display GIF format pictures on the Amiga. I haven't tested it, but
if anyone wants me to mail it to them, let me know.
--
Aaron Avery (avery@puff.cs.wisc.edu)
({seismo,caip,allegra,harvard,rutgers,ihnp4}!uwvax!puff!avery)doug@eris (Doug Merritt) (04/20/88)
In article <1419@hubcap.UUCP> disd@hubcap.UUCP (Gary Heffelfinger) writes: > [ ... ] Someone took the initiative and posted several >uuencoded binaries of GIF format pictures. Now I know nothing about GIF [...] >so I thought I'd ask this group. A GIF reader would be dandy, a GIF to >IFF converter would be okay too. Any ideas? Ok, I finally found what you want. Binaries (a reader/displayer *and* a converter to IFF), a little documentation, two example pictures. No source (although I *think* that may be available too, if I keep looking). Shall I mail it to you? Mail bounced; let me know a really good path, preferably starting from ucbvax. Or...it hasn't appeared on a fish disk; should I send it to the binaries group??? The main reason for people to be interested in this format is that it is a machine-independent way to exchange color bitmaps. You can release pictures (or get pictures) in a universal format. Possibly useful for the sci.electronics discussion about a format for schematics... Doug Merritt doug@mica.berkeley.edu (ucbvax!mica!doug) or ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug or sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
ain@s.cc.purdue.edu (Patrick White) (04/27/88)
In article <8965@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> doug@eris.UUCP (Doug Merritt) writes: >The main reason for people to be interested in this format is that >it is a machine-independent way to exchange color bitmaps. You can Unfortunately (?), IFF is better as GIF dosen't have anything that tells how big the screen is (although it does tell how big the picture is in pixels). This means that in order to display the picture on a different machine without distortion, one has to look at how big the picture is, and guess what machine was used to make it so one knows what the pixel aspect ratio is.. all this so one can display it without aspect ratio distortion. Fortunately, it seems many programs don't actually use all the possible features of GIF (like picture size) but usually just do full screen pictures.. so it is fairly easy to guess what the aspect ratio was. Of course, this only matters to those who care about that kind of stuff, but it looks much more impressive to display a pic from a different machine without it looking too short or too narrow. How do I know all this (or at least guess most of it :-)? because a friend has been beating on GIF for the last few weeks (writing a GIF reader, or translator, or something like that), and has kindly spent much time impressing upon me what is wrong and why it matters. [opinion warning.. hit 'n' now] So, IFF is better in this aspect because any machine that reads in an IFF picture has the decision about what to do if the picture was in a different aspect ratio. -- Pat White ARPA/UUCP: j.cc.purdue.edu!ain BITNET: PATWHITE@PURCCVM PHONE: (317) 743-8421 U.S. Mail: 320 Brown St. apt. 406, West Lafayette, IN 47906
doug-merritt@cup.portal.com (04/28/88)
Re: Patricks comments about IFF being better than GIF due to problems
with different aspect ratios on different machines...
I don't recall IFF having any fields that detail the host's aspect
ratio (on the Amiga it's about 1:1.15, the Mac is 1:1). Are you
sure it's there? If it's not, then they both have the same problem.
Sounds like a good idea to add it to any such standard, at any rate.
Doug Merritt ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
or ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu)
or ucbvax!unisoft!certes!douglel@wuphys.UUCP (Lyle E. Levine) (04/30/88)
In article <4857@cup.portal.com> doug-merritt@cup.portal.com writes: >Re: Patricks comments about IFF being better than GIF due to problems >with different aspect ratios on different machines... > >I don't recall IFF having any fields that detail the host's aspect >ratio (on the Amiga it's about 1:1.15, the Mac is 1:1). Are you >sure it's there? If it's not, then they both have the same problem. > > Doug Merritt ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt > or ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu) > or ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug I think this belongs in .tech but oh well... typedef struct { UWORD w, h; . . . . . . UBYTE xAspect, yAspect; /*pixel aspect, a ratio width:height*/ . } BitMapHeader; It's there all right! The actual ratio depends upon the resolution. A typical ratio for 320x200 should be 10:11. Sorry for posting this here but I felt it should be followed up in the same group it started in. ========== IBM is a Division of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation "their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws." - "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish" Lyle Levine: Paths -> ihnp4!wuphys!lel Best way: (314)889-6379 uunet!wucs!wuphys!lel