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1991-09-22
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G I F E X E
Version 2.0
September 20, 1991
A Self-Displayer Program for Your GIF(tm) Pictures
Copyright 1990,1991 Steve Enns and Dan Magosse.
All right reserved.
GIFEXE is produced by:
Steve Enns Dan Magosse
2425 Haultain Ave. 1321 14th St. East
Saskatoon, Sk. Saskatoon, Sk.
Canada S7J 1R2 Canada S7H 0A6
Okay, here's the boring stuff, but don't worry, it's better
than chewing tinfoil:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Kudos, thanks, and good karma to John Bridges for the
enlightening information and code contained in his VGAKIT
package. Trademarks like GIF(tm) and PC(tm) are held by
their respective companies.
DISCLAIMER
The GIFEXE program is provided without warranty of any
kind. The user of the GIFEXE assumes complete
responsibility for any and all incidental or consequential
damages which may occur during normal or abnormal use of the
GIFEXE program. Use the GIFEXE program at your own risk.
LICENSE
The entire GIFEXE package, including the GIFEXE program,
documentation, and sample files are Copyright 1990,1991
Steve Enns and Dan Magosse. All rights reserved. The
unregistered shareware version of the GIFEXE may be freely
distributed to others by any means, as long the following
(three) conditions are met:
1) GIFEXE is distributed in a "package" containing
the following three files:
GIFEXE.EXE
GIFEXE.DOC
GE-READ.ME
2) GIFEXE is not distributed as part of any other
product, except with specific written permission from
the authors.
3) NO fee of any kind is charged for the GIFEXE
package or for the service of providing the package,
except Computer Bulletin Board Systems, which may
distribute the GIFEXE package even though they may
charge a membership or service fee.
You can use this "shareware" version for as long as you
want, even until you're well into your nineties, but you are
of course encouraged to send us lots of money, too. (I'm
struggling to pay for my violin lessons, and Dan needs a new
fishing rod.) If you send $8.00 U.S. or more to the "Steve
Enns" guy above, you will receive a 5.25" disk (NO 3.5"
disks) with the latest registered version of GIFEXE, which
has several additional "special effects" features. (See
below.) If you send $23.00 U.S. or more, you will also
receive registered versions of the following programs:
GIFWARP! Warp, bend stretch your GIFs for
interesting effects.
GIFCLIP Clip/crop your GIFs, add text or your
own GIF logo or signature.
GIFSIZE Resize all or part of your GIFs. Shrink
an entire screen to the size of an icon.
(These programs are available in licensed SuperVGA versions
for $8.00 U.S. each, or get all three, and the latest
version of GIFEXE for $23.00 U.S. or more.)
REQUIREMENTS
GIFEXE requires the following:
- PC(tm)/XT(tm)/AT(tm)/386(tm) computer thing
- About 280K of free RAM
- DOS 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.0 (others untested)
- A VGA or SuperVGA card
and optionally:
- GIFEXE supports modes like 640x480, 800x600
with 256 colours on 512K and 1024K SuperVGA
cards from ATI, Ahead, Cirrus, Chips and
Technologies, Everex, OAK, Paradise, Trident,
Tseng, Video7, Compaq, NCR, Genoa and VESA.
INSTALLATION
Copy the GIFEXE program (and this helpful document of
course!) to any directory that you want - perhaps with
your favourite GIF(tm) viewer somewhere in the DOS
path.
USAGE
Syntax for GIFEXE is as follows:
GIFEXE [?] infilename[.GIF] [outfilename[.EXE]]
/mode=0,1,2.. /autoscale
or
GIFEXE [?] infilename[.GIF] [outfilename[.EXE]]
/mode=0,1,2.. /autoscale /fadein
[ /fadeout | /dissolve ] /delay=secs
for the registered version. The options may be used with
GIFEXE when you are creating an EXE, or with the EXE that
you have already created. (See TUTORIAL below.)
The options are as follows:
/mode /mode=0 Ordinary 320x200 mode
/mode=1 Low resolution SVGA
640x400 or 640x350
depending on your card.
/mode=2 Medium resolution 640x480
/mode=3 High resolution 800x600
/mode=4 Higher resolution 1024x768
is supported on some
1024K cards.)
/autoscale When this switch is used, the GIF will be
scaled up to fit on the screen if the screen
resolution is 2 or more times the resolution
of the GIF. (Just try it with a 320x200 GIF
and a 640x480 screen mode.)
And the additional registered version options:
/fadein Gradually fade in when displaying the GIF.
The screen will start black, and gradually
the pictures will appear as the colors
brighten.
/fadeout After the GIF has been displayed, and the
program is going to exit after a keypress,
or a delay (see below) the screen will
gradually fade to black.
/dissolve After the GIF has been displayed, and the
program is going to exit, the pixels will
randomly turn black until the entire picture
is gone.
/delay=secs After the GIF has been displayed, wait "secs"
seconds before automatically exiting. The
program will also exit if a key is pressed
before the time has expired.
For example, try:
C> GIFEXE to see the title screen
C> GIFEXE ? to see the help/brag screen
C> GIFEXE house to make the .EXE HOUSE.EXE
from the file HOUSE.GIF
C> GIFEXE house house2 /autoscale /fadein
make the .EXE file HOUSE2.EXE,
from the GIF(tm) HOUSE.GIF
using autoscale and fadein, so
that HOUSE2 will fadein and
autoscale when run. (/fadein
available on registered
versions only.)
C> GIFEXE house /delay=10
make an EXE, HOUSE.EXE which
will display HOUSE.GIF and
then wait 10 seconds before
exiting.
TUTORIAL
(Nothin' to it!)
Try out the following with your favourite GIF(tm) picture:
C> GIFEXE picturename
GIFEXE will prduce an EXE program with the name
"picturename.EXE" That's it! Now just run the program
you've just made:
C> picturename
The picture will be displayed on your screen in VGA, or in
SuperVGA if your computer has SuperVGA, and the picture
requires it. If you want a small (VGA) picture to be
displayed in SuperVGA resolution, try:
C> picturename /mode=2
to display the picture in medium SuperVGA resolution. If
you have the registered version, you can make an EXE that
will "fade in", and "dissolve out":
C> GIFEXE picturename /fadein /dissolve
Now when you run picturename,
C> picturename
The picture will "fade in", wait for a keypress, and
then "dissolve" and the program will exit. And even if you
didn't use some options when you created picturename.EXE,
you can still use them later. Try:
C> picturename /delay=10 /mode=3
and then the picture will "fade in" using mode 3, wait for
10 seconds or a keypress, and then "dissolve" and exit.
HINTS
- The EXEs produced by GIFEXE are handy for startup screens
on your computer, or title screens for your programs.
- Its easy to make slide shows of GIFs by using a batch
file. Just make a bunch of EXEs:
C> GIFEXE pic1 /delay=4 /fadein
C> GIFEXE pic2 /delay=4
C> GIFEXE pic3 /delay=4
C> GIFEXE pic4 /delay=4 /fadeout
and then a batch file to run them:
C> copy con show.bat
pic1
pic2
pic3
pic4
^Z
C> show
ERRORS
- The following self explanatory error messages may be
produced by GIFEXE. The errors involving the GIF(tm) files
will generally be due to disk errors or faulty image files.
Other errors refer to lack of enough free RAM space, or lack
of required hardware (VGA).
Can't initialize VGA graphics!
Unexpected EOF reading GIF!
Premature end of GIF!
Not GIF file!
Invalid GIF format
Error writing GIF!
Buffer allocation failure!
NOTES
- GIFEXE reads both GIF87A standard (the original) and
new GIF89A pictures, although most of the extensions in the
new GIF89A standard like (silly) text windows are ignored.
The last image in multi-image GIFs will be the one displayed
by GIFEXE.
HISTORY
- Version 1.0 Completed June.1 1991
- Version 1.2 Completed Sep.15 1991
Some additional cards now supported. 1024x768x256 now
supported on some 1024K cards.
- Version 2.0 Completed Sep.20 1991
Registered version introduced with /fadein /fadeout
/dissolve /delay options. /autoscale option
added to both versions.