Subject: Re: image support (was Re: Core-dump during startup on AIX-4.3.2)
From: Paul Rohr (paul@abisource.com)
Date: Thu Mar 02 2000 - 20:49:39 CST
At 07:48 PM 3/2/00 -0600, Justin Bradford wrote:
>> WHY do we want to invent the wheel rather than simply use
>> ImageMagick? It's available for all/most (I don't think there is a QNX
>> port) of the target platforms and it already abstracts out image stuff
>> for us, especially using all the libraries.
>
>First, I don't think the abisource people want to use it, so it's really
>pointless to argue it.
We still fantasize about keeping AbiWord lightweight enough to run in pretty
tightly constrained environments (like settop boxes, Crusoe pads, old 486s,
etc.). Those just aren't scenarios where ImageMagick's memory footprint
sounds appropriate.
No matter how cool ImageMagick is, it's overkill for us.
>Regardless, it's not difficult to redo the parts we want. In fact, it's
>trivial. Really the only question is deciding how to structure the abiword
>code. What are the APIs? How are they accessed by the various components
>that need to manipulate images? The code to actually convert the graphics
>is very small, as gdk-pixbuf shows. ImageMagick has stuff we don't want
>and it introduces another library we have to link against. Given the xp
>nature of the code, the fewer external dependencies the better.
Agreed.
>> Keep in mind that supporting compressed GIF images requires a
>> license from Unisys.
>
>I thought that was only for compression, so that using libungif (which
>only has decompression code) would be fine.
That was my impression too. (If anyone knows otherwise, please speak up.)
To avoid patent hassles, I definitely do not want to link any code into our
product which is capable of writing compressed GIFs.
Paul,
graphics heathen
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