jimomura@lsuc.uucp (Jim Omura) (12/10/87)
For those of you following the development of the GF9 animation/
graphic file format, I've decided to make one last actual change
in the addresses. After long consideration, it seems that the only
32 bit variable is the file length, which is the 2nd variable. In
order to simplify programming on 32 bit machines, I've decided to
shift down that variable and all subsequent variables by 2 bytes.
That is all addresses from 0x02 to 0x20 are shifted down by 2
bytes. The Color Pallette registers from address 0x40 to 0x5f
remain the same, because I left a big chunk undefined anyway.
The new variable space at offsets 2 and 3 are left undefined.
I have so far received no further comment which toward
changing these addresses and if I don't receive anything further
before the end of this week, I doubt if there will be any need
for further changes. I expect we will be able to freeze this
much of the definition, or as far as I'll have done by the end
of this week. At the very latest, I think we should treat it
frozen by Jan. 1, 1988.
The areas where there will still be work needed will be
the file headers for program and sprite definition files, and
a programming language which will, among other things, control
sprite movement. This stuff is not necessary for a minimal
display utility, so unless I receive specific requests to proceed
with those definitions, I'll probably leave them indefinitely.
Thanks for all the comments I've received. I hope you
all consider using this file format. I've tried to keep it
extremely flexible and powerful, without making it difficult
to use. Speed was a prime consideration, and I feel it's
going to be a success in that respect. Any further questions
or suggestions are, of course still welcome.
Cheers! -- Jim O.
--
Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880
ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura
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