[comp.graphics] Looking for Unix based GIF89a support

lwv27@CAS.BITNET (10/22/90)

Well, I am seeing an increasing number of GIFs locally stored in GIF89a
format.  But as far as I am aware, PBM Plus does not yet support that
format.  Does anyone have any utilities which DOES ?

In a similar vein, there was quite a discussion going on during
the summer concerning the legality of GIF using the LZW algorithm in
its compression.  Was there ever an official press release from Unisys
allowing software usage of the LZW algorithm?  If not, has there been
a joint press release from Compuserve and Unisys indicating that they
have the right to use LZW ?
--
Larry W. Virden
Business: UUCP: osu-cis!chemabs!lwv27  INET: lwv27%cas.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.Edu
Personal: 674 Falls Place,   Reynoldsburg,OH 43068-1614
Proline: lvirden@pro-tcc.cts.com  America Online: lvirden CIS: [75046,606]

koblas@mips.COM (David Koblas) (10/23/90)

In article <9010221700.AA20982@lilac.berkeley.edu> lwv27@CAS.BITNET writes:
>Well, I am seeing an increasing number of GIFs locally stored in GIF89a
>format.  But as far as I am aware, PBM Plus does not yet support that
>format.  Does anyone have any utilities which DOES ?

From the implemtation of a GIF87a reader that I wrote, and upgraded
to GIF89a there isn't really any difference.  The biggest difference
is that they have used some of the extention blocks to actually
do things.  So the simple answer to this problem is make a tiny
patch to the PBM software to recognize GIF89a as a magic number in the
header.

[for the reason this is a post rather than a mail message]

Now, if you happen to have a GIF file that does contain the new
extention blocks that are mentioned in the 89 spec.  I'm interested
in getting a copy so that I can check the code that I have written
to decode these extension blocks.

-- 
name : David Koblas                        domain: koblas@cs.uoregon.edu
place: Nowhere, I'm just an AI batch job.  domain: koblas@mips.com
quote: "Time has little to do with infinity and jelly donuts."