From: Tristan Wibberley <twibberley@llamacom.com>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 02:18:28 +0000

Re: Opening graphics files....

Olivier Galibert wrote:
> 
> 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]?

Nothing, it would probably use them to load the data from image files
(ie libGil[l] requires Imlib/libMagik). It would just be easier for the
programmer to use with GGI than directly using those above, because the
programmer won't have to worry about framebuffer formats and stuff.

> If some rare  hardware
> provides acceleration for loading some image  types, I'd better extend
> these libraries which  already exist

Fine, then libGil[l] would use the library for that hardware, and hit
the hardware directly if the library doesn't support that device.

> 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.

Hmm, I'm not sure I understand what your saying here? Please clarify.

-- 
Tristan Wibberley		Linux is a registered trademark
				of Linus Torvalds.