[comp.sys.acorn] New Translator & co

kortink@utrcu1.UUCP (Kortink John) (02/16/91)

There are new, improved versions of Translator, MakeGIF and MakeTIFF.

I will not post them here, until we have a binaries newsgroup, but if
anyone wants them, mail me, and I'll try to mail you a copy.

The main improvements are summed up below.

Translator 6.31
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The first few improvements were suggestions posed here and in letters :

- By setting the flag 'Same leafname' in the 'Save' submenu, the leafname
  of the file to be saved will be set to the leafname of the input file.
- Translator now auto-loads on double-clicks on &690-range filetypes.

Other improvements are:

- TIFF LZW compression is handled now. MakeTIFF can now create these too.
- Palette choice in 256-colour modes is free now (i.e. 'Current' settings
  will work). This makes it possible to tweak the palette for slight
  improvements. I am working on a simple utility to calculate an optimum
  palette for an 8-bit Clear file. Possibly this will be built into
  Translator sometime (if it's fast enough).
- New menu structure finalised.
- Documentation tidied up a bit.
- Some speedups here and there.
- A few buggettes fixed.

MakeGIF 2.10
------------
- Speedup of around 12% of compression.
- Progress now indicated in hourglass percentage.
- Default filename in save file window is set to leafname of input file.

MakeTIFF 2.10
-------------
- LZW compression option added. This finally makes it possible to store 24-bit
  RGB images in as little space as possible. To improve compression of these
  images (which is usually low), it is wise to zero out the 2 least
  significant bitplanes of R, G and B. This can be done by letting Translator
  create a Clear file, setting all the RGB resolutions to 6 bits. Compression
  will be better, and there will be no noticable loss in image quality, as
  the zeroed bits are usually at the noise level anyway.
- Moved machinecode to a module, which is killed on quitting.
- Progress now indicated in hourglass percentage.
- Default filename in save file window is set to leafname of input file.
- Giving more memory now *does* speed up conversion. Extra memory used to be
  reserved for buffers, but, contrary to what the guide said, they were never
  used (oops!).

John Kortink

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Student of Informatics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands
MAIL : kortink@utrcu1.uucp
DISCLAIMER : you know ....             "If language were liquid
                                        it would be rushing in
                                        Instead here we are
    Suzanne Vega (Solitude standing)    in a silence more eloquent
                                        than any word could ever be"
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