Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!shlump.dec.com!michaud From: michaud@decvax.dec.com (Jeff Michaud) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: Fast Backgound File Loads Message-ID: <3284@shlump.dec.com> Date: 29 Jun 89 21:20:51 GMT References: <19946@cup.portal.com> Sender: news@shlump.dec.com Lines: 20 In article <19946@cup.portal.com>, Jerome_V_Vollborn@cup.portal.com writes: > SUMMARY: > > I need to load some, possibly, large bitmaps in a reasonable amount of > time. I have some possible solutions but none of them seem elegant. Do > you know why any of these should be rejected out of hand or do you know > of a really elegant solution? The problem is that X Bitmap files were designed to be portable, and not for speed. Every time you read one you have to parse it in ascii. What you want to do is convert the bitmap file to a raw binary form with a min. header of a couple of words that give the dimensions and then the raw data. Then modify xsetroot to read this new format. Or better yet (ie. w/out having to write/modify any code), use one of those pbm or fbm packages that have been posted to convert/display the images. One of them must have an option to display the image on the backround. -- /--------------------------------------------------------------\ |Jeff Michaud michaud@decwrl.dec.com michaud@decvax.dec.com| |DECnet-ULTRIX #include | \--------------------------------------------------------------/