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 --------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------