Subject: Re: robinsons. non subscribed.questions
From: John Bintz <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 18:56:59 -0700 (PDT)

On Wed, 25 Sep 1996, Keith Hill wrote:

> > Also,how can i use GIF`s in my amos pro programs?
> 
> Gifs ?  Hmmmm.  Do you remember those 500 line iff converters...?  Gifs are
> worse...  

I've written GIF converters in very small spaces.  I've even coded the 
LZW Treestep algorithm in Asm for very fast decoding, all in AMOS.  I 
know of a place where you can get GIF code in QBasic, which is easily 
converted into AMOS BAsic...

However, there are two problems:

1.  Most GIFs have 256 colors, so you'll have to develop a palette 
matching routine to get all those colors on the screen.  This I have done 
so many times its second nature, and I can show you how to do it.

2.  Unisys, owners of the LZW compression scheme, charge an arm and a leg 
for licensing ($100 US up front!) even for shareware programs.  I have 
not done this, as I need money for college.

GIF decoders are fairly easy to code if you have an example.  They're 
also very easy to understand once you code it.  But they're very 
expensive to use.  (and slow!)

John C. Bintz - * [email-masked] *
WWW:  http://www.dragonfire.net/~JohnBintz/HOME.HTM
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