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From: mikeo@sae.UUCP (Michael Ovington)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: R5 wish list
Message-ID: <9008031915.AA24235@sae.com>
X-Local-Date: 3 Aug 90 12:15:36 PDT
Date: 3 Aug 90 19:15:36 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
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From the frequently asked questions list:
>... writing a generic String to Pixmap converter is impossible, since
>there is no accepted convention for a file format for pixmaps. Therefore,
>neither the X Toolkit or the Athena widget set define a String to Pixmap
>converter; because there is no converter you cannot specify this value as a
>resource.

I would R5 to include a 'blessed' pixmap format so that you can:

	1. use pixmaps in resources specifications.
	2. use pixmaps portably without having to port a bunch of 
	   pixmap loading code as we move an application from
	   machine to machine.

   I don't care which format is chosen (gif, xpm, tiff, xwd etc. There are
LOTS out there.), but standardizing on one will make it much easier for
application builders to include color and greyscale images in their
applications.
   Ideally, dithering (for monochrome) and colormap compression (for displays
that can't display as many colors as the image contains) should be supported,
but if the core distribution supports loading the pixmap and providing
colormap information, the rest can be done at the widget/application level.

________________________________________________________________________________
      Michael S. Ovington               Software A&E
      (703) 276-7910                    1600 Wilson Blvd, Suite 500
      uunet!sae!mikeo                   Arlington, VA 22209
      mikeo@sae.com
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