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From: djb1@ukc.ac.uk (David Beckett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: GIF Viewing again and again (summary)
Keywords: GIF, conversion, IFF
Message-ID: <5373@harrier.ukc.ac.uk>
Date: 30 Aug 90 16:36:01 GMT
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Lines: 62

Phew!

Big response to my original article, including from the authors of some of
the programs mentioned (HamGIF and GIFMachine). From the discussion, I have
made the following conclusions:

       * Some programs need lots of stack
	 eg GIFtoIFF

       * Some (Most) programs need lots of memory
	 eg FBM, GIFtoIFF, ...

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

       * Some programs chop off images at the screen width/height
	 eg HamGIF , VirtGIF (unregistered versions)

       * Some crash/hang  on certain images
	 eg HamSharp and GIFtoIFF

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. The ones that
it didn't do, I used GIFtoIFF to do.

[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!

As for displaying the images, thats no problem, I have a disk full of file
viewers that can display most of the types. I have had *no* problem displaying
a 1152x900 picture on my Native 1.3 Amiga (came with new chipset).

       *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? 

-- 
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David Beckett                                           | djb1@ukc.ac.uk
Computing Lab., University of Kent, Canterbury,Kent,UK  | ..!mcsun!ukc!djb1