Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: GIF for an apple ][c
Message-ID: <12359@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 15 Mar 90 20:43:48 GMT
References: <2394@ultb.isc.rit.edu>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 20

In article <2394@ultb.isc.rit.edu> fjs3367@ultb.isc.rit.edu (F.J. Schwalm) writes:
>Or What?  I didn't hunt for an apple ][c GIF viewer so I couldn't wiew the
>    pictures I wanted to see.  I'd like something that works for all standard
>    GIF pictures, not on some non-standard GIF format.  It doesn't even make
>    sense to HAVE a non-standard GIF format.  I thought standardization was the
>    idea to begin with...

It is, and in fact when I last tried IIGIF some time ago it worked fine
with genuine GIF-format files.  However, some BBSes (notably those on
Macintoshes) may download your GIF files with additional header garbage
stuck on the front of the file; if the GIF viewer doesn't try to skip
such leading garbage it won't think the file is in GIF format.  (A true
GIF format file begins with the ASCII characters 'GIF87a'.)

I'm working on a GIF viewer for the IIGS, and somebody else recently
announced he was doing something along the same lines.  There are two
big problems with GIF viewing on an Apple II:  Many existing files
contain more information than can fit on the Apple II display, and
it is difficult to choose a good selection of colors for the Apple's
limited palette.