Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!netcom!barry
From: barry@netcom.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Better Graphics
Summary: kludges.
Keywords: graphics display
Message-ID: <6646@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 5 Feb 90 04:34:57 GMT
References: <1010@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> <345@vixen.uucp> <354@vixen.uucp> <5539@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM>
Organization: NetCom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 249-0290 guest}
Lines: 34

In article <5539@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM> wayneck@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Wayne C Knapp) writes:
>In article <354@vixen.uucp>, joe@vixen.uucp (Joe Hitchens) writes:
>> OK, if all of the special BB stuff is ENTIRELY transparent to me as
>> an artist, ok.  But what about this, is the IFF file going to be stored
>> as a standard 8-bitplane IFF ILBM that can be displayed on a SUN or PC
>> with absolutely no change on their part?
>
>Wow! An Artist puts every programmer on the net to shame.  He is right,
>this is the key issue of IFF, clearly if BBVB stores IFF in the fashion
>we been told, then the only program that can use that IFF is one that
>works with the BBVB!  It will be unlikely that programs that support IFF
>on other machines will have any code to handle the BBVB generated IFF and
>the result will not be a 256 color picture.  So putting a cookie in the
>bitmap data of an IFF file does make it unportable. 

	Yeah, well, that's all very interesting, but it's more than a
bit late for this kind of complaint about the Amiga's graphics, guys. By
the offered definition, the Amiga's original HAM mode is ALSO a kludge.
It's an Amiga-exclusive and, just like the BBVB pics, would not display
properly on some other machine that supported IFF, but expected X
bitplanes for 2^X colors. It just happens that most Amiga IFF programs
understand HAM mode, because it's supported on Amigas (and choke on an
honest 8-bitplane IFF image, incidentally).

	You're right - they're kludges, HAM included. But they work, and
format converters can be written to translate such pics for
compatibility with other machines. And when you remember that the Amiga
included a graphics kludge for large numbers of colors right from the
git-go, it's kinda silly to get all righteous about a new kludge, long
as it works.

-  Note new email address!  -             Kenn Barry
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