Really Useful CD 1/ReallyUsefulCD1.iso/extras/graphics/_translatr/docs/updates

Text File | 1990-08-26 | 15.0 KB | 242 lines

Updates since version 5.50

5.50   - Changed default auto zoom flag to OFF.
       - Re-organised the menu tree using two submenu levels instead of one,
         improving selection and 'look' (a small root menu instead of the old
         'bulky' one).
       - Closest colour to RGB now calculated using R, G and B weights 1 (used
         to be 'luminance' weights), so RGB distance=dR^2+dG^2+dB^2. Makes no
         real difference and maps are calculated more quickly now.
       - Added 'Invert RGB' option to invert the image's RGB values before
         processing it. This results in 'negative' images.
         This flag is saved in new status files.

5.60   - Ability to read PCX (IBM compatibles) format added, filetype &697.
         Currently only 16-colour EGA and 256-colour images can be read.
       - Slightly speeded up menu's.
       - Renamed 'Repeated byte' compression to more common 'Run length'.

5.70   - QRT RAW format added (pure 24-bit RGB), filetype &698.
       - PCX palette bug removed : palette was ok, but not passed correctly,
         so images appeared to have no palette or a bad one.
       - Info on colours changed to 'number of bits' instead of number of
         colours/greys (=2^bits), because 2^24 (QRT) is a bit much ...
       - Palette submenu was not updated correctly when using ADJUST. Fixed.
       - Auto-selected grey palette (for some images without palette) was not
         quite right (especially for 2-colour images). Fixed.
       - GIF images NOT 2,4,16 or 256 colours not decoded right : 'bug' pixels
         scattered throughout the image because of erroneous determination of
         'first char of translation for old' (too few bits when it wasn't
         within one byte totally, which can only occur for 'uneven' character
         lengths, i.e. 3,5,6,7 bits). Must have been introduced in 5.42. Fixed.
       - No 'greyscale warning' anymore for SUN 1-bit files without palette,
         as these are more or less 'allowed' to have none (i.e. are black and
         white in these cases).
       - Major speedup of almost all formats, up to 1500%(!) :
         Degas 100% (i.e. twice as fast), Img 800%, Amiga IFF 30%,
         MacPaint 1100%, GIF 25% (who was it that said it could not be done
         any faster :-) ?), SUN (monochrome) 1500%, PCX (EGA) 120%,
         Proartisan, Watford, Render Bender a few percent (3-8%).
         These are rough figures, based on speed tests of the unpacking
         process alone, screen blanking on, mode 0, from RAM disc.
       - TIFF (Tag Image File Format) format added, in a limited way :
         bilevel, greyscale and palette colour (1,2,4 and 8-bit) are handled,
         but no compression or multi-colourplane images (yet). Filetype is
         &FF0 (already allocated by Acorn, there seem to be plans to make TIFF
         replace sprite files !).
       - Changed 'Screen' in image info to 'Image'.
       - Rotate bug raised its head again (see 5.32). Calculation of buffer
         location wrong (words mistaken for bytes) so when new sprite is bigger
         than old one (more wastage) buffer overlaps partly with bottom of
         new sprite, causing overwrite there. Unfortunately, the 1K safety
         margin from sprite end to lomem prevented problem from being detected
         (only extra wastage >1K gave problems). Fixed.

5.71   - ArVis Videographics (15-bits RGB) format added. The 15 bits per pixel
         are held in two sprite files, which are in a directory called 'HIP'
         and 'LOP' respectively. The user should drag the sprite file in the
         'HIP' directory to Translator. The 'LOP' file will then be located
         automatically. This is the first (inevitable) exception to the
         'unique filetype, everything in a single file' rule.

5.72   - Slight speedup of error spreading (around 7%)
       - Translator now also attempts to display the image correctly in
         modes with less than the required number of colours. It does this
         by determining the most frequent colours in the image (as many as
         the colours available in the current mode), and selecting their
         RGB values as the palette. The less frequent colours are then mapped
         to the closest of these selected colours. This gives acceptable
         results for most images up to a perfect result for 256-colour black
         and white images which are displayed in 16 colour modes.
       - Reduced memory need for main program. Module takes up more though,
         so total memory cost stays the same.

6.00   - Major improvement : output mode and palette are now fully user-
         selectable, and error spreading now works in ALL output modes.
         Two extra icons, 'Output mode' and 'Output palette' have been added
         to the 'Processing' submenu. In the former the 'Auto' mode (the
         old situation, where Translator determines the best output mode
         AND palette), or 'Current' mode may be selected. When in 'Current'
         mode, the current mode is used as the output mode and the user may
         also select the output palette in the 'Output palette' submenu (not
         in 256 colour modes however, the standard palette is always used) :
         either the current palette (i.e. any palette can be chosen for the
         output image, e.g. via the desktop palette utility), the default
         palette (as after VDU20), or a linear greyscale from black to white
         ('Current', 'Default' and 'Greyscale' respectively).
       - The palette choices have been removed, to even more closely satisfy
         the WIMP guidelines, in this case 'thou shall not change the palette'
         (even though applications like Translator HAVE to (unless users want
         to change it by hand for each and every image !!! Do you ?).
         The old 'Desktop' palette can be selected with 'Default' in the
         palette utility anyway, and the 'Image' palette can be selected using
         the new 'Image palette' icon (and there's no 'ticking' anymore,
         because the palette may be changed by some other application (another
         Translator possibly !), most notably the palette utility). The old
         'Default' palette selection (or indeed any other) may be done by,
         for example, executing a (standard) palette file.
       - Bug removed : after rotate, a Full save saved a wrong sprite. Ok now.
       - Bug removed : for images smaller than the minimum visible window area
         the background contained junk because of the transparency of the
         window. In these cases the background is now cleared specifically.
       - Some example palette files for 16 colour modes are in the 'Palette16'
         directory. They divide the 4 available colourbits between red, green
         and blue in three combinations (2,1,1, 1,2,1 and 1,1,2).
       - If there are no other Translators active, Translator's module is
         killed on quitting (if only more applications did this !).
       - Width of some submenus reduced for 'better looks', some names too.
       - Created templates for most of the windows.
       - Bug removed : PCX images sometimes (randomly) appeared to have 'no
         palette'. Ok now.
       - Lots of cosmetic changes.
       - Added 'Zig zag' flag to processing options. When ON, error spreading
         plots will plot every other line in the opposite direction (as usual),
         so patterning effects may be reduced. When OFF, lines are always
         plotted left to right (which may be useful when the 'zig zagged'
         result is less pleasing than expected).
         The zig zag flag is saved in new status files.
       - Changed 'RGB resolution' submenu to three sliders for red green and
         blue.
       - Changed 'Normal size' in 'Zoom' submenu to '1:1'.
       - Added (pre-)scaling possibility for both x and y ('Scaling' in the
         'Processing' submenu). Any scaling ratio may be used, which then
         defines a 'pre-scaling' on the image. This ensures that images
         on which error spreading is applied, and which are to be scaled down,
         retain full quality, in contrast to scaling down AFTER the
         calculations (which loses the error factors in the neighbor pixels).
         It is only possible to scale an image down (i.e. multiplier <=
         divisor). The option '1:1' in the 'Scaling' submenu resets the
         scaling factors to normal.
       - Added possibility to output 'Clear' files (filetype &690),
         Translator's own filetype, which retains all information of the
         original image. Refer to the documentation for more information.
       - Can now also read PCX 1 and 2 bit per pixel 'EGA' files.

6.01   - Palette now reset to desktop palette on closing image window.
       - Bug cured : Missing ENDIF when clicking on grey area of save file
         window.
       - Null reasoncodes not taken anymore when not necessary (only needed
         when awaiting acknowledge from filer). Speeds up the whole system.
         Pointer_Leaving/Entering_Window also masked out.

6.10   - Menu's now pop up at standard places.
       - On recognizing file formats via contents, Translator does not
         'settype' them anymore. In these cases, it seems more reasonable for
         the user to explicitly set the filetype if necessary.
       - Image window stays at same size and position now when changing screen
         mode and pop-up (as far as possible). Used to jump to bottom left
         and full (auto-zoomed) size.
       - 'Full'-save-with-palette risked (unused, so harmless) 'junk' palette
         entries for images with 'non-log2' (non-1,2,4,8) bits per colour. All
         'black' now.
       - Added 'smart' memory allocation. Translator now starts up in the
         minimum amount of memory needed, and grabs/releases memory
         automatically when loading/discarding images.
       - Added possibility to scale up. When error spreading is active,
         scaling up in x direction gives more pixels to spread the errors
         over, so quality may be improved, and scaling up in y direction
         may also improve quality in 'zig zag' mode (i.e. duplicated lines
         may end up slightly different).
       - Somehow 'smart' pointer during saves became defined in a wrong mode
         obscuring lower counter. Don't know since which version. Fixed.
       - TIFF reader can now handle PackBits compression.
       - MacPaint images now also recognized by file contents.
       - Major bug removed : file chunk loading caused junk byte after
         3rd chunk and onwards. It is almost incredible that this never
         came to light before, as it affects most formats, except GIF,
         AIM, TIFF, and a few others. With a file buffer size at least half
         the image data size this bug could pass completely unnoticed. I.e.
         with plenty of available memory or small images.
       - TIFF reader can now handle class R (24-bit RGB) images.
       - Internal memory allocation improved. The Translator module now takes
         up much less space, and memory is only allocated, using application
         workspace only, when needed. This results in (sometimes considerably)
         less memory usage in most situations. However, there are several more
         'complaining' messages now, indicating memory shortage at some point
         during allocation. An indication of how much more is needed is usually
         not given, except when the image itself cannot be stored.
       - Translator now reads 'MTV' (MTV ray tracer) images (24-bit RGB).
         Translator filetype &699.
       - Translator now reads 'Cadsoft' (Cadsoft/Millipede PRISMA) images
         (8-bit colour). Translator filetype &69A. Can also be recognized
         by file contents.
       - Hourglass made more informative : when loading from disc, the top
         'LED' will be on, when processing it will be off.
       - A new 'flag' in the 'Processing' submenu called 'Percentage'. When
         on, the hourglass displays the percentage of rows done so far (no
         percentage and no top LED on usually indicates decompression, e.g.
         GIF). When off, no percentage is displayed.
       - Acorn's icons for TIFF now used.
       - Major improvement : Added full Floyd Steinberg error diffusion. The
         user can now choose between the old method (called 'Simple') and
         'Floyd Steinberg' (and 'Off') in the 'Error spreading' submenu.
         Floyd Steinberg error spreading is computationally much more
         expensive and results are usually better, but how much depends very
         much on the image contents (see guide for more details).

6.11   - Bug removed : CTRL-SHIFT-f12 quitting with more than one Translator
         active would hang, because of the way of negotiating the module kill.
         Ok now.
       - Bug removed : TIFF RGB not read correctly, usually resulting in
         'Bad colour translation table' because of erroneous overwriting of
         internal sprite.
       - Updated Clear file 'version' to 611. Forgot in 6.10. !MakeGIF 2.02
         and !MakeTIFF 2.02 do not complain anymore about 'unknown'
         makers, so there should be no more problems. The Clear format is
         not intended to change anyway.

6.12   - Rotate got unallocated buffer, so it failed to work at all. Fixed.
       - 'View mode' icon added to 'Pop up'. When ON (default OFF), then when
         an image is loaded, the mode prior to loading is remembered, and
         re-selected when the image window is closed.
         This flag is saved in new status files.

6.20   - 'Magnifier' added. This opens the magnifier window, in which a
         piece of the image clicked on by SELECT or ADJUST is shown (clicked
         point in the middle). On the magnifier window itself, clicking
         SELECT increases and ADJUST decreases the magnification. MENU will
         re-select 1:1 (as at pop up of the window). All buttons are auto-
         repeat so shifting through image is very easy.

6.21   - Incomplete GIF files handled better (part read is visible).
       - Bug removed : loading RGB + black and white + no error spreading
         crashed (faulty jump in module). Ok now.
       - Magnifier window, when already on and below other windows, did
         not come to front when 're-activated'. It does now.
       - Added 1 bit red, green, blue and tint (amount of white) 16-colour
         palette file to 'Palette16'. Can give quite good results.
       - Added some 'standard' scaling (both x and y same scaling) ratios
         to the scaling submenu.
       - Added possibility to define a fixed number of pixels for the
         output image by using a 'simple' form of scaling ratio. For example,
         entering '100' for the x scaling factor will actually define
         '100:xin', where 'xin' is the number of X pixels in the subsequently
         loaded image. This (re-)appears as '100:x' in the submenu to make
         its semantics more clearly.
       - Bug fixed : upscaling 'lost' a pixel when ratio did not reduce to
         x:1 (i.e. practically always). Ok now.
       - Bug fixed : scaling of Img (&692) files not correct when it used
         duplicate row compression. Ok now.