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Archive Magazine 1996
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Updates
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1993-03-05
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>Updates
Updates since version 6.74
6.75 - Added FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format. Used mainly for
astronomical data (not necessarily images, but always interpreted as
such). Translator filetype &6A3, icons present.
6.76 - New FileBuffer module (1.05), containing fixed bug, not really
relevant to Translator (very much more to !PackDir though).
- Translator does not do FileBuffer_Clear anymore prior to processing.
It's not really recommended in a multitasking environment, but now,
when filebuffers are not properly closed by some user of FileBuffer,
there is a risk of no more buffers error.
6.77 - Added Wild Vision Hawk V9 format. Translator filetype &6A4, same
as SnapShot (12-bit RGB). Icon present. Can be recognized by contents.
6.78 - Slightly speeded up LZW decompression, affecting GIF and TIFF-LZW
compressed files.
6.79 - Bug fixed : again problems with PCX files. Some unjustified
assumptions about file length removed.
6.80 - Bugette fixed : BMP image rows seem to be rounded to 16-bit instead
of 8-bit (oh well, I had no docs !). Images with (bpp*width+7) DIV 8
uneven are read correctly now.
- Default value given to photometric field in TIFF handling, although
every TIFF file should carry it.
6.90 - Major revamp of control windows : only one left, with grouped sets
of controls. I must admit a major inspiration by the Interface module
by Simon Huntington for the fancy borders, but I didn't want to use
it itself as it would be a bit of an overkill (and another module !).
Looks exactly the same though. Result ? 'Ooooh, I like it !'.
- Changed a few defaults : 'View mode' = ON, 'Error distribution' =
Floyd-Steinberg.
- Removed 'AllTypes' subdir. Look with !Paint if you wanna see all da
iconz.
- Let !RunImage go on a severe diet (it is now 'crunched' in public
versions). Enabled me to free another precious 32K page !
- Added a menu to the control window to quickly 'pan' to one specific
group.
- Changing mangification of the magnifier is now on the image window
while holding down SHIFT.
- Lowered speed of magnification changes somewhat to have more steps
at lower magnifications.
- MENU on image window gives iconbar menu.
- CTRL-ADJUST/SELECT click on image window now do 'reload last'.
- The scaling, zoom and mode set writable icon sets now react to
Return being pressed by flipping the caret over to the 'next' icon
in the set. This makes entering factors/numbers a lot more convenient
(previously entering 4 numbers would require 4 mouse clicks).
6.91 - Oops. Fancy border draw could be speeded up considerably after all
(sorry Nick !). Now in machinecode and zipping along happily.
- Removed superfluous 'Interface' validation strings to avoid A5000
fancy border clashes. My selection is via high ESG numbers.
6.92 - Bugette fixed : loading Clear files sometimes caused 'Number too
big' error because of non-redefined variable.
- Scrap file is now deleted after loading (i.e. after 'direct-save-to-
Translator' drags), in conformance with data transfer protocols.
- RiscOS 3's 256-colour sprite format can be loaded now.
- 3D icons for filetype &6A0 (MSX-2) added.
6.93 - Slightly improved compatibility with bad TIFF files : ASCII fields
written out without the mandatory terminating 0 are read correctly
now.
6.94 - Major rewrite of internals. No change in functionality.
- Separated fancy border plotting in own module.
7.00 - Closest colour calculations are now weighted per primary colour
(Red=3, Green=10, Blue=1). Gives better results.
These values were figured out by Roger Wilson of ChangeFSI fame (so
they must be good!).
- Added 'precise colour matching' option to Floyd-Steinberg dithering,
which calculates closest colours 'on the fly' instead of via a 12-bit
table. Squeezes out an extra 1% or so, at the expense of a lot more
calculation time.
7.10 - FS precise matching only worked for 256 colour output due to a silly
bug. Fixed.
- Total revamp of control window, making it a lot smaller. Introducing
'Selection' icons instead of radio icons, which take less room :
click MENU over them to choose.
- Extra 'fixed' ratio's for Zoom and Scaling, menu popped up by clicking
MENU over 'X' or 'Y' dumb icons.
- Removed the 'Percentage' flag (silly to switch off anyway) and the
'Reload last' button (which is CTRL-click on image window).
- Menu items now standard 44 OS units high (was 40, Roger Wilson was
shocked by this. Hmmm. Takes more to shock *me*. He was right of
course, it's in the PRM's. Different feel tho).
- Check & warning added for old status file (as Percentage flag has
been ditched).
- Added my face to the Info window ! How cruel mother nature can be.
7.11 - New 'Borders' module. SWI errors are now propagated.
- Pointer now changes shape over icons that can pop up a menu.
- Up and down arrow keys now also 'navigate' in writable icon sets.
- When the control window is accessed as a submenu, and MENU is clicked
over it, the control window is made permanent (it used to disappear
because of the iconbar menu closing).
- Clicking ADJUST on iconbar icon now also does reload of last image.
Thanks to Cy Booker for his suggestions resulting in the above five
updates.
- Caret now properly re-placed in writable icon when it is changed (e.g.
when using pre-set scalings etc., from '1000' to '1' by '1:1' would
leave the caret too far right).
- Translator used to complain '... at least -xxxxK more !', i.e. a
negative amount (so, actually, too much memory !). Ok now.
- Changed ESG numbers of special icons from 15 down to 31 down.
- Can now load JPEG JFIF files, using the Independant JPEG Group's
decoder (djpeg). Docs are in 'JPEGusage' and 'JPEGreadme'. Filetype
&C85, icons from !DJPEG by BASS, 'cause of lack of better ones :-).
No '22' or '3d' versions yet though ... JPEG is decoded via PBMPlus.
7.12 - New JPEG decoding software (v4 now, Dec 1992): important improvements
on image quality, processing speed and DCT accuracy. Compiled it
myself this time around ...
- Thrown in cjpeg too, though it's not used.
- PCX version 3 files now correctly (?) decoded as greyscale.
- New 'me' (adapts to Yeig too !). I'm looking terribly annoyed at yet
another undocumented non-supported extremely rare wildly illogical
format-variant that's to be added ! Don't let it bother you ...
7.13 - Moved 'me' to seperate window, for a smaller info window. Access via
'hidden' button.
- Translator no longer uses a module for its own ARM code. All the code
is now in a 'local code module', which resides in the application
workspace instead of the RMA. The local code is accessed via a new,
very small general resource module LocalCode, which I setup to be able
to use BASIC's convenient SYS command.
The most obvious advantage of the 'local code' scheme is that the code
stays out of the already overcrowded and thus increasingly fragmenting
RMA area, at the expense of some code duplication in case multiple
copies of the application are loaded.
- New Borders module, now correctly switches back from menuptr to normal
pointer in all situations.
7.14 - Fixed LocalCode module to avoid a bug in pre-1.05 BASIC V's (it seems
all RISCOS versions except 3.10 are affected). LocalCode SWI's corrupt
some or all of r8-r12, which apparently causes the older BASICs to
crash out because they expect (some of) these to be intact after the
SWI call in SYS, i.e. only 1.05 seems to protect them (like it
obviously should !).