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1995-12-01
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Tiffin
~~~~~~
Author
======
Peter Greenham
Version
=======
2.03 (1-Dec-95)
Purpose
=======
Converts between RISC OS Sprites and TIFFs.
But ChangeFSI does that, doesn't it?
Well, yes, most of the time, but ChangeFSI doesn't cope with all TIFFs. In
particular, it doesn't cope with multi-channel TIFFs such as those exported
by PhotoShop 3 on the PowerMac. Tiffin is likely to read just about any valid
TIFF file thrown at it. You can then drag the sprite into ChangeFSI for
scaling or taking down to fewer colours.
Specifically, Tiffin should work for all TIFFs following the 5.0 or 6.0 TIFF
spec.
In addition, TIFF creation under RISC OS is sometimes unexpectedly traumatic.
Creator does strange things sometimes, and doesn't work at all with 16 or 32
bit sprites, while PhotoDesk does not handle compression. Tiffin can take any
Archimedes sprite and turn it into a TIFF, either 24 or 32 bit, with or
without LZW compression.
NB: ChangeFSI doesn't cope with the 32-bit TIFFs Tiffin generates, but is
happy with the 24-bit ones.
Use
===
It's simplicity itself: When run, it installs its icon on the right side of
the icon bar. Drag a TIFF file to it, and after a short delay you will be
presented with a window showing the resulting sprite. Click MENU to obtain
the save box. Note that as this is a 32-bit sprite, it may not look too
brilliant on screen modes without that many colours. Don't worry, the sprite
itself is fine. Switch to 16 million colours to reassure yourself!
The reverse conversion is as simple: Drag a sprite file onto the Tiffin icon,
and it will appear in a window. You can then save it out as a TIFF, according
to the options set int the Options dialogue (obtainable from the iconbar
menu).
Tiffin can hold multiple images at the same time, up to the limit of your
computer's memory.
There is an "Options..." item on the iconbar menu. Select this to change the
settings to be obeyed in future.
At the top is the "Interactive" option, which is selected as default. If you
deselect this, sprite or TIFF files dropped on the iconbar will be converted
and written back over the source without asking for confirmation. This is
useful if you have an entire folder full of images you want to convert. MAKE
SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP OF THE IMAGES FIRST - in case you change your mind. And
be warned that, when converting from TIFFs to Sprites, because there is no
compression in RISC OS sprite files, the resulting files will almost
certainly be larger than the TIFF source files.
Another, safer way of performing batch conversions is to drag a directory
holding files to be converted onto the Tiffin icon. You will be shown a save
box allowing you to drag a new directory of the same name somewhere else.
Tiffin will then work recursively down the directory structure converting all
files it sees.
Clicking on the iconbar icon will give you an error box showing the version
of LIBTIFF being used. See below.
LIBTIFF 3.4beta
===============
Tiffin uses my own port of the TIFF support library written and placed into
the public domain by Sam Leffler of Silicon Graphics Inc. The latest version
of the library is obtainable from ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff, and this Acorn
port is integrated there.
In addition, the library, and a pre-made Acorn version, exist on more common
Acorn sites (ftp.sgi.com is VERY slow from here!). I will upload it to Demon
and Hensa. However, this may not always be the most up-to-date version of
LIBTIFF, though every effort will be made.
Toolbox
=======
This application uses the new Toolbox modules that come with Acorn C/C++. For
this reason, a copy of !System is supplied with Tiffin for you to integrate
with your own !System in the normal way. You will need to do this before
Tiffin will run.
Requirements
============
Tiffin will only run on RISC OS 3.50 or later. This is because it produces
32-bit sprites unknown to previous versions of RISC OS, and because it uses
dynamic areas.
Rights
======
This program is copyright © Peter Greenham 1995. 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.
Contact
=======
Peter Greenham
peter@enlarion.demon.co.uk
User #963 Arcade BBS (0181 654 2212)
ChangeLog
=========
1.21 17-Jul-95
Received OSLib 5.00. Fixed, recompiled and relinked using it. No functional
change at all.
1.22 20-Jul-95
Received new LIBTIFF (3.4beta018). Fixed up and working.
The !RunImage is considerably smaller! :-)
Uses OSLib's low-level file handling functions, rather than the equivalents I
wrote inside LIBTIFF for that distribution.
1.25 01-Aug-95
Design change: Image displays in a window. Save box accessible from there.
Multiple images can be held at once, in separate windows.
Also, DrLink now used, so RunImage even smaller!
1.25a 04-Aug-95
Dynamic areas now of the form "Tiffin: <spritefile leafname>"
2.00 16-Oct-95
Finally! Sat down and sorted out converting from *any* Arc sprite to
32/24-bit TIFFs.
Recompiled for LibTiff 3.4beta024
2.01 26-Oct-95
Extended to allow user to drag a directory onto the icon, and drag another
away to perform more normal batch operations (ie: to convert to another
location rather than in situ).
Also, it will attempt to load as TIFF files of other types. (Behaviour is
slightly different: If dragged to iconbar will only attempt Data and DOS (as
well as TIFF), whereas in batch operation will try anything not already dealt
with.
2.02 29-Nov-95
Tiffin has been falling foul of the Filecore/Dynamic areas bug, whereby
fwrites from memory locations where the top bit is set can cause crashes.
Fixed by adding fwrite and fread replacements which do the job byte by byte
if the top bit is detected.
2.03 01-Dec-95
Fixed the bug regarding converting 8-bit or less sprites into TIFFs.
To Do:
I will attempt to make Tiffin produce more rational TIFFs when given shallow
sprites - ie: indexed-colour 8 bit or less rather than taking everything up
to 24-bit data.
I may integrate ChangeFSI use, so it can generate the final sprite in
whatever screen mode (and perhaps other options) the user desires. The user
can do this anyway by dragging Tiffin-generated spritefiles onto !ChangeFSI.