minich@d.cs.okstate.edu (Robert Minich) (12/03/90)
jmunkki@hila.hut.fi (Juri Munkki): [about where PICT is documented] ... | The best way to get Macintosh graphics to a NeXT would seem to be | PostScript. After all, Apple supplies a QuickDraw to PostScript | converter in its laserwriter printer drivers. Of course it needs | a largish library file, since it doesn't produce native PostScript, | but at least it is possible (with some editing, I think) to move | QuickDraw files to the NeXT as PostScript. The _BEST_ way to get a Mac picture to another machine is to use a common format, NOT PICT. Apple has said that PICT is not an interchange format for use by other machines. The main advantage of PICT is that any Mac program can "read" one because there are toolbox calls to do so. If the PICT format is extended (eg, for 32bit color), then old programs can still work with the new format. A good programming exercise is to write a filter that uses the QuikDraw bottlenecks to capture the actions of a PICT regardless of its format. You stuff your routines' addresses into a jump table with entries for various drawing primitives such as lines, rectangles, etc. I don't know of ANY format that is truly useful as a structured, transferable format unless it is the native format for both ends of the transfer. This interchange problem also is prevalent in word processor file formats. You'll usually find that you lose some information even though the output could be identical. IMO, PostScript is far from the best format for interchanging data. Attempting to capture Mac output via PS would be at best humorous and at worse a dismal experience. PS's problem is that it's a programming language, NOT an image description format. | Don't take wrong...PICTs are great...if you have a Macintosh. Well, they're highly useful but I don't know if I'd call them _great_. :-) One big problem is the resolution... 72dpi is fine for screen work but you'd be amazed at the problems that arise when printing at high resolution. Two points that are coincident on the screen are suddenly separated on paper. -- |_ /| | Robert Minich | |\'o.O' | Oklahoma State University| "Get bent." |=(___)= | minich@d.cs.okstate.edu | -- Bart Simpson | U | - Ackphtth |