Risc World 5/Risc World 5.iso/SOFTWARE/Issue5/PD/THUMBCAT/ReadMe

Text File | 2004-11-02 | 22KB | 420 lines

                                 Thumbcat
                                 ========

Title       : Image Catalogue

Author      : Malcolm Ripley

Version     : 4,2b

Location    : http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mripley
              (software section)

Description
-----------

This program is catalogues images in two formats both on-screen in normal
RISCOS windows and HTML format.

Basic features are :

* Handles - Sprites , Drawfiles , AVI's (from digital cameras) , JPEG's ,
  EXIF's
  plus any file formats recognised by ImageFS
  plus any file formats recognised by ChangeFSI
* Will build a catalogue of a directory tree of images.
* Files dragged to the iconbar icon will be interpreted and then displayed
  in a detail view.
* Directories dragged to the iconbar will be searched and all recognised
  images displayed in a thumbnail view.
* Creates JPEG thumbnails for fast re-creation of a thumbnail view.
* Essentially adopted the EXIF tags list for its own image database details.
* Almost all tag values can be edited.  Some tags don't make sense to edit
  e.g. x-y dimensions !!  Please note that when an EXIf file is handled the
  embedded tags are extracted into the Thumbcat database and can thus be
  edited. The tags within the file remain unchanged.
* Thumbnail views behave similar to filer windows in that :
  - Images can be copied (by dragging) or moved (by shift dragging) between
    views.
  - Images can be copied and modified by adjust dragging. In this case an
    options window will pop up allowing you to choose simple rotations and
    reflections and to change the filetype of the copy.
* Catalogues can be stored with images or remote from the images in a
  "pseudo" application.  The pseudo application can be relocated without loss
  of functionality. Thus catalogues can be created of readonly sources.
* HTML catalogues can be created. These will have relative links for
  catalogues with the images and absolute references for catalogues remote
  from the images.
* Configurable thumbnail and detail views.
* Thumbnails are self repairing once created.
* Will print out multiple images per page in original aspect ratio and
  standard photo sizes
* Index/contact sheet printouts.

Subtle points
-------------

The combination of dragging to the iconbar and adjust dragging to a filer
window allows thumbcat to translate a drawfile to a jpeg, for example.

Problem Reporting
=================

Please report any problems to myself, my details are at the bottom of this
file.  I will also welcome any constructive recommendations but please
refer to the future enhancements section first.

When reporting a bug please email the full error message. It would also
be useful to reproduce the error whilst in debug mode and email me the
logfile.  This can be done as follows:
1. From the iconbar menu display the info window and click 4 times on the
   application name.
2. Re-create the error.
3. Double click on the file "Findlogfile" which will open up the scrap
   directory containg the log file.
4. Email me the logfile, the error message and description of what you
   were doing.

Pre-Requisites
==============

SpriteExtend module with JPEG extension (released with RiscOS 3.6 onwards)
CompressJpeg module (released with RiscOS 3.6 onwards)
Toolbox Modules

If you have ImageFS running then ensure the following is set :
* Filetypes - JPEG conversion inactive and all others set to auto.
* Conversion - new sprite format, square pixel aspect,filename from parent, 90dpi resolution.
* General - time before progress window set to 1000 csecs.

Future enhancememts
===================

These are being worked on now:

* Database queries. The result will be a view of images identical in
  appearance to a thumbnail view.  These types of views will refresh every
  time they are displayed i.e. the search criteria re-run. A database query
  result view can be saved/copied as a user view.
* Parent-child relationships to allow tracing of copied files

Maybe not the next release:

* Allow transformation of draw files.......as of aug 2004 probably not due
  to the large amount of coding required which is distracting from the
  intended scope of Thumbcat.
* Validation of edited tag values.
* Select imagefilerenderer to be used as a file converter

Known faults:

* Occasionally a "Font not Found" error pops up but I have not been able
  to determine why...yet.

Licence and terms of use
========================
This program is copyright © Malcolm Ripley 2003. It has been released as
FREEWARE. This means you can copy, distribute and make use of it as you see
fit, provided you do not sell it. PD libraries may include it as long as they
do not charge more for disks than is needed to cover costs.

I can accept no liability for data loss or other damages arising from the use
of this product.

As of version 3.6a the IJG module jpegtran is included in the resource folder
for use in lossless jpeg to jpeg translations.

Version History
===============
v4.2b  - maker note handling for Fuji changed so that the default is the
         most common, little endian, whereas the others are big endian.
         Nice cock up Fuji !
       - Exif decoding more robust in case of a maker note problem.
       - The "show all tags" menu item now correctly shows the ticked or
         unticked state.
       - The "Modify Image" album menu option is now faded if the image is
         read-only.
       - Catalogues burnt onto a CD have their read/write flag ignored
         (i.e. read-only)
       - The vertical scroll bar restored on the create catalogue window.
       - Catalogue repair option now possible from iconbar menu as well
         as the original method.
       - Repairing a catalogue with the assess missing tags option now
         presereves existing data (! whoops)
v4.2a  - Mistake with one of the set statements prevented the help from
         being viewed.....depending on how and when wrt running thumbcat !
       - images in the help have been shrunk considerable.
v4,1   - Ability to convert an EXIF to "normal" JPEG and preserve the data
         has been restored after accidentally preventing it in V3.6b.
       - Contact sheet type printout of an album now possible.
       - The catalogue creation and maintenance window has been improved.
       - The ability to catalogue only the top level directory has been
         restored.
       - Improved progress window.
       - Catalogues on "unavailable" volumes no longer causes a crash.
       - Copying an image over itself (and deleting it !) is now trapped.
       - Copying from the detail view has a had a few anomalies fixed.
       - HTML manual now included. A crude first pass which will improve.
v3.10a - Drawfile changed from v1.48 to 1.43 and not 1.38 to 1.35 !
         whew : alcohol + sex + programming on the same day = dead brain cells.
       - Added check in case printer driver not loaded.
       - Added check in case drawfile destination not specified.
       - Modified tag translation for an unsigned real number of zero so that
         it does not generate an error (i.e. 0/0 !) - Nikon Coolpix 950 exif
       - Also modified the signed real number tag for the same potential
         problem.
       - Country detection for Castle help was inserted at the wrong location
         in the !Boot file causing problems with variable Thumbcat$Dir. Now
         at the correct location.
       - Added PNG filetype to the list of those handled by ChangeFSI hence
         Thumbcat can now handle PNG's
v3.9   - Very Long filenames now accepted when rotating an image inside Thumbcat
       - Images can now be primted with options to allow standard size and/or
         multiple images per page.
       - Added a trap to identify the occasional error when closing Thumbcat
         which tries to close a file called "FONT". Also added a trap to try
         and identify when this "file" is supposedly opened ?!?
       - Changed the Drawfile module check from v1.38 to v1.35
v3.8c  - Fixed a problem if an EXIF is from an unknown camera maker e.g. a
         CD from a photo shop.
       - Improved interpretation of EXIF date tags.
       - Help added to the iconbar menu
       - Castles recommended help extension implemented although I have put the
         help files inside a territory specific directory.
v3.8b  - Added a limit in the EXIF tag procedure to ensure that problems and/or
         too many tags no longer cause the program to crash
       - Dragging to an application changed slightly so that by default no
         external link is created. Pressing Alt-drag creates a link.
       - External loads fixed so that dragging and dropping to positional
         dependant applications like Ovation now works.
v3.8a  - Changed the compressjpeg module version check from 0.06 to
         0.05 for Iyonix users.
V3.7   - No longer duplicates album displays at all times. Previously it
         only prevented duplicates if the title matched the directory.
       - Now loads an EXIF into an external application after pressing OK
         on the warning message (! tch tch)
       - Fix to the import of a large quantity of images most definitely
         fixed!
       - Fixed the unnecessary re-creation of thumbnails for the second
         and later images loaded into an extrnal application.
       - Modules check in the !Run file has version numbers.
v3.6b  - Preserves EXIF data for simple manipulation (by user demand !)
       - uses jpegtran for all lossless jpeg to jpeg translations
       - Menu behaviour over an album changed slightly so that if ONE image
         is already selected and the menu button pressed whilst over a
         different image then the selection switches.
       - layout of all toolbox objects modified to allow system font to be
         displayed without clipping.
       - Copying an image when the detail thumbnail is missing no longer
         generates an error.
       - Importing a large quantity of images (>80) no longer generates an
         error.
       - Page numbers on empty albums now show 1 of 2 and 2 of 2 instead of
         1 of 0 and 2 of 0
       - The pointer for a catalogue has been tidied up so that it does not
         change whilst over the total line.
V3.6a  - Allows simple manipulation of bitmap style image within thumbcat
         i.e. rotate +90,-90,180 and mirror x or y
V3.5   - Warning issued if an EXIF file is exported to an application since
         it may result in the loss of data if the file is resaved as a JPEG
       - Adding a child album on pages 3 onwards for a book style now works
         correctly.
       - HTML export fixed for case sensitive OS's.
       - Pointer shape changes when over the catalogue tree view with red
         borders for empty albums and green ones for non empty albums.

V3.4d  - Selected images now delete. Previously only the menu context but
         unselected images could be deleted.
       - Pressing menu over an album image now shows the image as being
         selected.
       - Loading an image into an application no longer results in an
         initial (redundant) re-creation of thumbnails.
       - The interval between externally loaded images being checked for
         a change now correctly becomes progressively less frequent and
         thus not consume resources for an image no longer being edited.

V3.4c  - Selection of images changed from inverted picture to a blue image
         name. This now works for 32K and 16M colour screen modes.
       - Images loaded in immediate mode using ChangeFSI previously reported
         an insufficient memory error.

V3.4b  - Catalogue order can now be modified at any time.
       - Improved cell background compatibility for HTML exports
       - Fixed problem with ".ile" handler not found for HTML export
       - Eliminated spurious characters after a directory with no images, for
         the HTML export.
       - Default HTML export is for a normal relative reference for
         compatibility with any platform.
       - Select all works again !!!! (who'd be a programmer for a living I ask
         you...hang on I am....now where's that lottery ticket)

V3.4a  - Dropping all catalogues now correctly list no catalogues !! and fades
         the parent menu items.
       - HTML export now uses canonicalise filenames for absolute references.
       - HTML export options now allow export of originals and/or thumbnails.
       - HTML export has the correct background colour of light grey.
       - Clicking on the blank area of a book style where the last page has
         empty slots, no longers crashes.

V3.3   - HTML export now possible and the look and feel reflects the users
         choices but only for a filer style.
       - Album within albums can now be created for unlinked/arbitrary lists of
         images. This previously gave a misleading error of "duplicate album".
       - Arbitrary lists now use canonicalised filenames, the only sensible
         option !
       - Multiple image selection fixed to be identical to the way the filer
         selects and deselects.
       - Selection of images on pages 3 onwards fixed (the multiple selection
         code buggered this up!)
       - Clicking with adjust on the flip page icons in the book view behaves
         opposite to clicking with select

V3.2d  - Tag list of a an image from a view now displays
       - Skins improved
       - Multiple images in an album can now be copied/moved with a single drag
       - Albums with the same name in the same catalogue can both be opened.

V3.2c  - Detail view now displays date and/or title according to user choice
         instead of being the same as the album view...oops
       - Images can be moved between albums again (bug introduced in colour
         handling change in v3.1)
       - Images at the top of the filer e.g adfs::$.image/jpg will now load.

V3.2b  - Fixes a failure to display an album if the dynamic area address is
         > 2Gb
       - Fixes a nonsensical error of IM-1 due to a missing THEN clause, this
         error occurs on RO5 Basic.
       - Fixes an occasional  problem with relative addressing between images
         and the pseudo application.

V3.1   - Essentially a bug fixed version of 3.0 beta.
       - ImageFS tested.
       - Added the ability to convert an image to 256,32K and 16M colour sprites
       - Closing of an album is much much faster
       - All unhandled messages and toolbox events "switched off" thus freeing
         a few CPU cycles.
       - Allowable filetype conversion process fixed in the copy-modify window.

V3.0   - Faster.
       - Maker note handling added for:
         Olympus, Nikon, Fuji, Casio, Canon
       - Database modified to store ALL non null tags. Databases from older
         versions of thumbcat will be automatically extended if any items are
         edited.
       - User selection of tags now defines those that are displayed in the
         various presentation screens.
       - Book style presentation, with various user definable "styles".
       - Each window opens at a slightly different location
       - External files (dragged to Thumbcat for immediate viewing) now show
         only the user selected tags.
       - A new variation of an album is now allowed, making 3 in total :
         1. A linked album where the album contents matches an underlying RISCOS
            directory.
         2. A view where the images are a list from any album of any catalogue.
         3. (new) An unlinked album where the images are from anywhere.  In this
            case the images can be added and deleted without affecting the
            original images. However the data for an image is held in a thumbcat
            database and can be edited.
       - Original RISCOS directories or albums can be opened for any image from
         the album menu.
       - Data can be copied between data tag windows. Either one item or all
         items.
       - The detail window and tag data window have been split.  This is easier
         to manage and looks neater with less blank space.
       - The detail view is automatically a paused slideshow.
       - Slideshow of catalogues, albums and views.  These will multitask.
       - External linking for images being edited.
       - The handling of DOS style extensions has been removed from the
         thumbnails since the way the HTML catalogue works is being changed.
       - I have now included two copies of thumbcat. One with the original
         source code and a much smaller one without.

V2.4   - Fix to scrap directory reference method (I was on the wrong planet !)
       - Fix to choices directory reference
       - Fix to a bug in building a "remote" catalogue.
       - Fix to the reading of the options file....kind of. This was due to an
         omission from the exceptions files used when crunching the source
         Basic file.
       - Greatly improved debug mode with far more detail (for me !)
       - Fix to the album view of a "remote" catalogue when the remote volume
         is not present.
       - Missing volumes are now prompted for, whenever copying images, whereas
         previously thumbcat reported a "problem when copying".
       - Known remote catalogues are booted to ensure the album opens
       - Fix to Iconspace which used to extend even if there was space.

v2.3   - maintains a list of all known catalogues
       - Fix to transparent option which would be ignored if switched off
         unless you selected a colour. It now defaults to white.
       - When creating a new album the "title" is now clear.
       - Dragging external files into the album no longer reports the
         destination as being "read only" and stops the copy (whoops !!!!)
       - When the list display had portrait and landscape images the display
         became corrupt when images were added to or moved from the list. Now
         fixed.
       - Complete "internal" rewrite of thread data which improves response,
         easier to maintain, more efficient memory usage etc etc
       - Users choices all moved to Boot:Choices so they are preserved from
         release to release.
       - Tree-album list now orders correctly even if the user has edited
         the contents by hand.
       - Additional option of ordering calendar named directories before or
         after non calendar named directories e.g. jan-fab-andrew or
         andrew-jan-feb
       - Tree menu now shows the "selected" album in the menu title.
       - Album menu now shows the "selected" image in the menu title.
       - User Views. A user view is a list of images from any album of any
         catalogue.
       - multiple displays of the same catalogue, album and/or detail view no
         longer occurs.  The existing version pops up to the top.
       - Dragging of an image from a riscos directory that has already been
         catalogued
         will reference the existing catalogue file and thumbnails i.e. much
         faster.
       - It is now possible to set the Alias variable to have thumbcat load an
         image into a detail view.
         NB the previous two fixes in conjuction with select 3 would allow you
         to use select 3 filer window as an album view and double click an
         image to get the thumbcat detail view with all the database details.
         You can drag from the detail view to an application for editing.
         NB in theory since I do not have select 3 but it works with RO4.
       - Tag values can be edited directly in the detail window.
       - directory list view(s) update when an image is moved or copied
       - the moving or copying of duplicate images is now trapped.
       - fix to title text in album view

V2.2   - Titles with commas no longer cause problems with the list view.
       - "slide" backgrounds on the thumbnail view can now be transparent.

V2.1   - Ensured the pseudo applications that contain catalogues start thumbcat
       - When a directory was dragged to the iconbar and images were double
         clicked the second,third etc image created an error. Now fixed.
       - Multiple "external" files and folders did not free all internal
         threads, now fixed.
       - FixtoolsC which attempts to resolve problems with incorrect versions
         of toolbox modules in some !System folders has been reported to crash
         on some machines. This has not been reproducable on my machine and so
         an error trap has been built in to FixtoolsC so that any problems do
         prevent thumbat from loading.  A full fix will be pursued.
       - Fix to ensure some poor exifs don't crash THumbcat.

V2.0   - Handles sprites, drawfiles, jpegs and EXif's with no additional
         applications.  Handles all vector and bitmap images recognised by
         ImageFS and ChangeFSI, if present/running.
       - Editable tag details.
       - Filer-like image copying and moving facilities.

V1.0   - Never released due to a website problem. It only handled sprites,
         jpegs and AVI's without thumbnails. Only created an HTML
         catalogue format.

Author Details
==============
Name    : Malcolm Andrew Ripley
Address : 7 MacNeill Gardens, East Kilbride, Glasgow , G74 4TS
Email   : [e-mail] (if emailing for the first time please
          include my new sender keyword > terrier < in the subject line).
Website : http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mripley