ian@media.UUCP (Ian Poynter) (12/13/88)
We are looking for information on the following file formats.
I have tried to give a quick description of what we think the formats
are, but we really need to find sources for definitions. Respond by
e-mail (unless you think everyone cares) to avoid the fatalities of "expire"
and I will summarize later.
1) PICT. We're pretty sure this is the Macintosh format. What is the
best place to look for definitions?
2) GIF. We think this is CompuServe's file format for images, but where
can we find a good specification?
3) SCF. We have no idea what this one is, but the name has been mentioned
as something we need to support (??!)
Thanks in advance
Ian
--
Ian Poynter Phone: +1 (301) 495-3305
UUCP: ..!{mimsy,sundc}!{prometheus,hqda-ai}!media!ian
Internet: (new) ian%media@pentagon-ai.army.mil (but too new to work?)
(old) ian%media@hqda-ai.arpa (going away real soon now)js9b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon C. Slenk) (12/14/88)
PICT is MacPaint or MacDraw (I am not too sure, now... :-{) and the appropriate
defintions and tortuously convoluted discussion of the subject should be
obtainable through reading the ubiquitous Inside Mac.
Sincerely,
Jon Slenk / js9b CMU.
P.s: sorry if my spelling is aweful. (yuck yuck)cc4b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Christopher Brian Cox) (12/15/88)
PICT is the older (B&W or limited color) MacDraw format.
PICT2 is the newer color format. It is importable/exportable by most of the
current color painting/viewing/whatever software on the Macintosh.
As far as information: Inside Macintosh is a good start.
If you use PICT2 then I suggest that you read Inside Mac V, and then
throw it out.
It provides only about half of the information. It is most sadly
lacking in it's description of the bitmap format.
The only way I found the complete format was to use I.M V, and then pick
apart example files for differences.
Chris Cox
(flames/complaints to documentation@apple.com )johnm@trsvax.UUCP (12/15/88)
>2) GIF. We think this is CompuServe's file format for images, but where > can we find a good specification? CompuServe naturally :-) Get on C$ and enter the command "GO PICS". That will take you to the forum that supports GIF. There you will need to look around (or just ask) for a form that you will fill out to become a developer. You will find the specification in one of the download libraries that is open to the general public so it isn't an absolute necessity that you become a developer. However, if you do become a developer then you will get access to a private download area with source code for a variety of things (including a variety of LZW compression/decompression code that you can use). Getting up to speed quickly without some code to help you can be difficult because all GIF pictures are compressed using the Lempel-Ziv-Welch algorithm (the same one used by Unix compress, Zoo, and many of the Arc programs). John Munsch