This is an introduction to PictFlipper, a small drag and drop utility which is moderately useful when dealing with PICT files and StartupScreens. It will run under System 6 and 7 with a standard file dialog box if launched without a file.
What it does is simple. It turns PICT files into StartupScreens and vice versa. A PICT file should be fairly obvious. A StartupScreen is more ambiguous. Essentially, a StartupScreen has a file type of SCRN, but that’s not always the case. What it MUST have though is a resource of type PICT and ID = 0. This is in contrast with the old 9” b&w StartupScreens which had the same file type but were uncompressed bitmaps stored in the data fork. PictFlipper doesn’t deal with those kinds of StartupScreens.
PictFlipper works by the simple fact that both PICT data and PICT resources are identical data just stored in different places. All PictFlipper does is copy the data from one place to another. It needs enough memory to be able to read the entire PICT in before writing it out. There is no buffer scheme. PictFlipper does not decompress QuickTime pictures nor does it require that QuickTime be loaded since it doesn’t display the PICTs.
PictFlipper can turn any file into a PICT file (if it has a PICT resource) and can turn a PICT file into a SCRN file.
The obvious question is why. I use this simply to convert StartupScreens I get off the net to PICT files which I display using Hypercard and the Picture XCMD. I write programs for fun and wrote this one because I wanted to. Some people have expressed interest in it, so I cleaned it up. Have fun.
Feel free to send questions, comments and money to me.
