From: Olivier Galibert <galibert@pobox.com>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 03:00:16 +0200

Re: Opening graphics files....

On Thu, Sep 03, 1998 at 11:46:08PM +0000, Marcus Sundberg wrote:
> Hmmm, we really need a library to load images and put them onto
> a visual. Hmm, some ideas just popped up in my head. ;)
> * It should have dynamically loaded "loaders", just like libggi
>   have it's targets. This will keep the core library small and
>   still provide support for every possible imageformat. It'll
>   also let us use existing libraries like libgif/libjpeg/libgbm
>   without needing every library to be installed for it to run.
> * You should be able to associate an image with a visual, which would
>   convert the image to the apropriate format and do dithering as
>   needed. Dithering modules would also be dynamicly loaded.
> * And of course there should be a function to blit the image to
>   a visual.
> * How about naming it libgil for General Image Loader :)
> 
> Does this sound like something useful?

No.  This sounds  like  yet another instance  of the  NIH[1] syndrome.
What's so bad  with Imlib[2] or  libMagick[3]?  If some rare  hardware
provides acceleration for loading some image  types, I'd better extend
these libraries which  already exist (imlib is even  part of  both Gtk
and Harmony (the free Qt replacement)).

You may want  to have the  hardware-support  libraries before drafting
other general  purpose software only ones if  you care about releasing
anything before 2038.

  OG.

[1] Not Invented Here

[2] http://www.labs.redhat.com/imlib/

[3] http://www.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/ImageMagick.html