SimpleImageFilter

SimpleImageFilter is a filter service which converts IFF (Interchange File Format) images to TIFF, allowing OpenStep applications to load and display IFF images. SimpleImageFilter_main.m shows how one might create a filter service; iffToTiff.m contains mostly uninteresting code that does the actual image conversion.

Note that this program is not meant to be a complete IFF to TIFF converter; it lacks many features, ignores many IFF chunks, doesn't recognize all IFF types, and probably has a few bugs. It's simply provided as an example of a filter service, and as a tool with which developers can check to see if their applications use NSImage in a way that allows them to load images reachable through filter services. If you install this service in your ~/Library/Services directory, you should be able to drag and open .iff image files in any OpenStep application which imports images. A sample file (SampleImage.iff) is provided for testing purposes.

There are some tricky issues in creating a filter service:
· The project is an Application, not Bundle, allowing the standard makefiles to create an .exe instead of .dll on Windows
· Makefile.postamble specifies that the wrapper extension should be ".service", not ".app" (see APP_WRAPPER_EXTENSION)
· Makefile.postamble clears PROJTYPE_LDFLAGS on NEXTSTEP to avoid giving the executable an icon section. This way Workspace will not create an app tile when the service is launched.
· We specify ".iff" and ".IFF" as extensions, as file names on Windows can come in all upper case