Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!harrier.ukc.ac.uk!djb1
From: djb1@ukc.ac.uk (David Beckett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: GIF Viewing again and again
Message-ID: <5358@harrier.ukc.ac.uk>
Date: 28 Aug 90 11:35:47 GMT
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Lines: 49

Phew!

Big response to my original article, including from the authors of some of
the programs mentioned (HamGIF and GIFMachine). I have discovered some of my
problems, as relating to conversions that may help the discussion:

	* Some programs need lots of stack (GIFtoIFF)

	* Some (Most) programs need lots of memory

		Since I only (!) have 1Meg, with lots of resident programs
		to make the machine usable, this is a big problem.

	* Some programs chop off images at the screen width/height

	* Some crash (GIFtoIFF) on certain images

In response to several (mail) replies - I have come to the conclusion that
you need at least :-) a 68030 board, 4meg and a large hard disc to do
conversions easily and fast.

The program that I finally got working - HamSharp - did most of the images
I wanted except the largest ones 1192x900 bw Sun raster image (I think that's
the dimensions) The problem was lack of memory - obviously a single large
chunk is needed. This applied to other programs I tried also which barfed
at the size. It looks like I will have to write a UNIX version.

[Aside: Why call the program HamSharp - gives *NO* idea that the program is
 a GIF to IFF conversion ! ]

HamLab: Shareware with crocking - I didn't bother since all my pictures are
>500x500 and I can convert them OK usually.

I tried FBM (Fuzzy BitMaps) off a fish disk. It also didn't work due to memory
problems. I even tried compiling the UNIX PBMPLUS toolkit on my Sun 4/330 but
it crashed. So much for portable software.

Some people mention converting to RGB format read by Digi-View. This is no
use to me since I do not own it, and anyway this probably takes up *even more*
space!


	*ALL* I wanted was a simple FD converter program to look at some
	FD images. By using a combination of several programs I nearly
	get this.

[FD=Freely Distributable - a better term than PD in my opinion]

Any more comments?