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From: sho@gibbs.physics.purdue.edu (Sho Kuwamoto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: De-macification of the Amiga (Re: The Amiga's Future)
Message-ID: <5395@dirac.physics.purdue.edu>
Date: 30 Jun 91 17:11:13 GMT
References: <1991Jun27.053909.23571@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun29.205207.5681@n <4972.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz>
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Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept, W.Lafayette, IN
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jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:
>    Pick one:
>
>    (a) the .MAC was the standard format, but now things have changed. And
>        thus dies the "still the standard format".
>
>    (b) the .MAC is a non-standard format that people used because they
>        didn't know better. Says a lot for the quality of such "standards"
>        on the Mac. The Ami paint software I've seen can't save in
>        anything BUT IFF.

Pardon me, but I've been using and programming the mac for six years,
and I have never heard of the .MAC format.  Can anyone tell me what
it really is?  Is it a MacPaint file?  Is it a PICT file?  EPS?  TIFF?
Let me give you a run-down:

   MacPaint:  Created early-early-early for use by the MacPaint program. 
              Stores b/w bitmaps of a specific size (1 page) with a
              little compression.

   PICT:      Standard picture file also from early-early-early.  PICT
              files contain a bunch of opcodes which must be
              incredibly difficult for other machines to decipher.
              The simple ones are instructions like "draw a rectangle
              here."  Complicated ones are more mac specific.

              On the mac, a programmer just has to call DrawPicture()
              and it decodes the picture for him.  Creating a PICT
              file is equally trivial.  PICT files have been extended
              to cover 24-bit images, JPEG compression, automatic
              dithering (used when 24 bit images are shown on an 8 bit
              screen, for example), and so on.

   EPS:       Encapsulated PostScript.  Bascially just PostScript +
              a little extra information like a bounding rectangle 
              for the picture.  Useful for programs that do fancy
              PostScript tricks and for trading with IBM owners.  

   TIFF:      Never used it myself, but it's an image format that people
              use a lot for scanned images.  I imagine it's because
              PICT files are bigoted and work best with 72dpi images.
              I think TIFF files can also be shared with IBM owners.

The last two formats are industry-driven standards.  EPS and TIFF
exist because there are certain ways in which the PICT format is
deficient.  The MacPaint format is almost never used these days.  It
became a standard a long time ago for the reason that the MacWrite
format became a standard: MacPaint and MacWrite were given away free
with each mac.

From what little I know about it, IFF seems very powerful.  I imagine
there are areas in which it outshines the PICT format.  However, I
don't think you can fault the PICT format for being inextensible.  I
also don't think you can argue that the PICT format is not a standard
on the mac.  Every modern paint program that I know of allows you to
import and export PICT files.  PICT resources (exactly the same as
PICT files) are used to transfer pictures through the clipboard.  I
know of no modern word processor which doesn't accept pictures.

Perhaps someone can tell me more about IFF and tell me why it is
better than PICT.  Is it really so powerful that EPS files would not
be useful?  I'm not even sure what kind of object-based drawing
commands IFF can contain.  Can IFF specify a picture as being, "one
rectangle from here to here, a line, a squiggly, and a polygon filled
with this pattern."

-Sho
-- 
sho@physics.purdue.edu