GIFConverter Copyright ⌐1988-1991 Kevin A. Mitchell
All Rights reserved.
This program was written with MacApp¿: ⌐1985-1988 Apple Computer, Inc.
APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
The MacApp software is proprietary to Apple Computer, Inc. and is licensed to Kevin A. Mitchell for distribution only with the GIFConverter program.
-----------
This file contains bug fix information about GIFConverter from version 2.0d5 to 2.1.1.
-----------------------
Version 2.1.1 (6/29/90)
o Fix a bug with unused color removal that caused strange coloration of screen display.
---------------------
Version 2.1 (6/26/90)
o GIFConverter is now shareware. Everything works, and the documentation is available online.
o GIFConverter now removes unused colors from the colormap when reading images. This causes it to write GIF files with less colors, improving compatibility with other GIF programs.
-----------------------
Version 2.0d14 (6/1/90)
o More compatibility work to accomodate decoders that don't understand complicated GIFs. GIFs with only one image are saved with a global map but no local map on the image. The "GIFGlobalMap" resource controls files with 2 or more images now.
------------------------
Version 2.0d13 (5/15/90)
o DEMO VERSION ONLY. If you don't have a software key, you can now VIEW files without the vertical bars. Attempting to cut, copy, save, or print a document will result in vertical bars.
o GIFs, by default, are not saved with global maps. These maps contained the background color, but caused some decoders problems. This is a temporary change.
o The Set Background Color... command is disabled when 32-bit Quickdraw was not present. The Color Picker used to work without 32-bit Quickdraw, but Apple broke it in System 6.0.5.
o There are BOOL resources in GIFConverter that control some features; these have names: "ScanPicture" controls scanning of PICT 2's for color (default on); "UseQD32" will control special features that only happen with 32-bit Color Quickdraw (default on, not used as yet); "GIFGlobalMap" controls whether global maps are saved with GIF files (default off for compatiblity with some GIF decoders, but also prevents saving of background color). Use ResEdit to change the contents of these resources to 00 (off) or FF (on).
o Options for dithering have moved to menus, and are no longer in the Options... dialog box.
o GIFConverter now always starts the Save dialog box at the file type of the document you're saving.
o Problem cropping images fixed.
-------------------------
Version 2.0d12 (01/16/90)
o Infinite out-of-memory errors have been eliminated. You may still run out of memory, but you will only be told once.
o Division-by-zero error (ID=4) corrected when running GIFConverter with a full system disk.
o GIFConverter can now write color or greyscale RIFF files. Color files are written if in the Color Display mode, greyscale files otherwise.
o Windows start small and enlarge to contain the graphic (without exceeding the screen size).
o Color quality in RIFF and TIFF output improved.
o GIFConverter can read TIFF type R (24-bit color) files, as well as P (8-bit color), or G (1,2,4,8 bit greyscale). Compressed TIFF files are not supported yet.
o When opening PICT files, Mac II StartupScreens, and pasting pictures from the clipboard, GIFConverter now determines the palette to use by scanning the picture.
o GIF files now save as they appear on the screen, as the other formats have. Now you can image enhance a file and save it as GIF.
o LaserWriter 6.0 is supported. When printing to LaserWriter 6.0 on a Mac II, GIFConverter sends the data as it appears on the screen. Make sure to print as Color/Greyscale for this to work. LaserWriter 6.0 supports color PostScript printers.
o There seems to be a bug in LaserWriter 6.0 that prints extremely light areas as black. I'm looking into this. Also, for non-color PostScript printers, changing the display mode to Greyscale speeds printing greatly.
o Thunderscan output no longer saves as a negative of what you see on the screen.
o More precise progress messages.
o Icon for GIFConverter-created startup screen files.
o Background colors supported for GIF files. They are not printed or saved to other files yet.
------------------------
Version 2.0d11 (9/17/89)
o Colors are now properly rendered on the screen, using the correct palettes.
o Commands added to fill the screen with a window and to show and hide the menu bar. When the menu bar is hidden, commands are still available through the keyboard, so you can get the bar back with command-B.
o Menu commands added for tools so you can change them when the tool palette is not visible.
o New Hand tool added for scrolling the image directly. It works the same as in MacPaint.
-----------------------
Version 2.0d10 (7/25/89)
o Clipboard now accurately reflects contents of screen.
o Proper loading of CLUT resource verified. GIFConverter uses the CLUT table, and not colr or pltt resources.
o Cropping an image in 8-bit mode no longer gives an erroneous memory full condition.
-----------------------
Version 2.0d9 (6/4/89)
o Errors from QuickDraw are now displayed more specifically; they used to just give "program error".
o Image enhancement dialog fixed.
o Memory swapping errors fixed; GIFConverter now handles memory low conditions better.
o The memory window now appears at the right size on all monitors.
o Errors reading PICT files no longer crash the program.
o PICT2 files should now load under UniFinder and when MultiFinder can't expand the system heap.
o Rotated images shown in eight-bit color no longer disappear when rotated.
Version 2.0d8 (5/14/89)
o 32-bit compatible bit turned off until I'm sure it'll work that way. If anybody wishes to turn the bit on in ResEdit and try GIFConverter under A/UX, I'd be interested in the results.
o Attempted fix to crashes with PixelPaint files.
o Icons added for RIFF and TIFF files. The Finder doesn't recognize the need to add new icons, so it is necessary to do a rebuild to get all the GIFConverter icons. GIFConverter generates icons for all its output types.
o Fixed a resource numbering conflict that resulted in one-bit color coming out wrong.
o New memory statistics window added. This window shows the current usage of memory both in RAM and on disk. Many bugs fixed in the disk buffering routines that caused GIFConverter to run out of memory before it had to.
o Fixed dithering problem: when memory was low, the Floyd-Steinburg error table would be purged during dither, and the output would be garbage.
o Fixed RLE output; no longer emits garbage.
o Added document type to status bar. When clicking on an image, shows number of colors in image.
o Output files now always get the right file type.
o TIFF (mode P - palette color only) and Thunderscan output now supported.
o Running out of memory while reading GIF files no longer crashes the machine.
o GIFConverter would write to a random memory location, causing unexplained errors. This has been corrected.
Version 2.0d7 (4/16/89):
o Palette is now recalculated after image modification.
o Gamma correction added. Increase gamma setting to compensate for washed out pictures. New image enhancement dialog is partially finished.
o Palette calculations are much faster.
o Several memory management bugs have been repaired. These resulted in bombs, hanging, or corrupted pictures.
o GIFConverter now loads faster. Several resources are now marked preload.
o There is a PREC that allows for one-inch high images. When printing large color images on an Imagewriter II, the printer driver loses data. To correct this, choose one-inch pages and no gaps between pages, then print.
o Miscellaneous other fixes.
Version 2.0d6 (2/9/89):
o Attempt at faster palettes.
o Reads in 'clut' resource from PICT files. Writes 'clut', 'COLR', and 'pltt' resources to PICT files.
o Writes both data fork and 'PICT' resource to startup screens. This will be on an option later. Also writes 'clut', 'COLR', and 'pltt' if the 'PICT' resource is written.
o Writes EPSF files and prints halftones on laserprinters. Multi-page printing is implemented.
o Reads TIFF uncompressed files types G and P (greyscale and palette color). Please report any trouble with this feature.
Version 2.0d5 (1/6/89):
o The user can choose one-bit or eight-bit operation. Eight-bit operation only available on Mac IIs. Defaults are one-bit greyscale, eight-bit color on Mac II.
o Disk buffering will only use 50% of the available space on the boot disk, but won't ever take the last 100K.
o Known problem: Multi-Image GIFs with more than 4096 colors hang in "Building Palette." May really be hanging, or may be taking time proportionate to 4096^2. Will be sped up later.
o Image enhancement transforms the colors by converting to HLS, altering the lightness, then converting back to RGB. The old method caused strange colors because transforming each component sometimes caused the new color to fall outside the RGB cube, and it was clipped non-orthogonally.
o Reads RIFF files.
o Don't try to read TIFF files; you'll crash it. They aren't done yet.
o MacApp code and temporary memory reserves were increased to prevent crashes, hanging, and out of memory conditions.
o Saving files in tight disks works now.
o LZW compression time cut by 66%. Decompression is slightly faster, an unexpected benefit of changing the code to use with TIFF as well as GIF.
o Image hilighting changed to use striped lines rather than inverting. Remember, you can drag images with the mouse, or stretch by pulling the highlighted border. Shift to constrain. Use the marquee to copy selected area, or to crop to selected area. Copy and paste to create multi-image documents.
Version 2.0d4 (12/1/88) fixes:
o TImage.BldFrmBits now properly inverts the image so that it corresponds to the color table. This routine is common to all one-bit file formats: Paint, RLE, and old-style StartupScreen.
o TImage.RdPict2 now uses the structures built by NewGDevice. The pixMap buffer is allocated AFTER the call to MakeITable, which uses a lot of space temporarily. It also sets up the visRgn of the new cGrafPort so that it covers the whole picture, otherwise pictures got clipped to the main screen size.
o TImage.Draw can now draw bits for EightColor. This will be fixed even more when color users are given the choice of one-bit or eight-bit color.
o This version attempts to buffer raster memory on the disk:
1) Rasters are stored in the System Folder as "Raster" followed by numbers. They are created only when needed.
2) GIFConverter has no qualms about using up all the disk space this way. This will be fixed in later versions to ensure there is disk space to work with.
3) Files are emptied when the rasters are read in, and deleted when the corresponding memory structure disappears. Currently, the file is often not deleted. This will be fixed. Also, rasters are read in when needed in memory, not necessarily because memory is available or disk space is short. This too may be fixed sometime.
4) Special "SwapOut" and "SwapIn" cursors appear when swapping. You can watch it thrash.
5) GIFConverter can hang up if it can't redither, or if redither fails due to inability to swap. This will be fixed later.
6) Superfluous raster files may be deleted after quitting GIFConverter. Deleting files while GIFConverter is running can cause strange errors.
