Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!gatech!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!mp1u+
From: mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Portuesi)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: How satisfied are you with IFF?
Message-ID: <8XEH6zy00VsfM3KmIu@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 28 Sep 88 18:38:55 GMT
References: <3427@crash.cts.com>,
	<2642@sugar.uu.net>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon
Lines: 37
In-Reply-To: <2642@sugar.uu.net>

> *Excerpts from ext.nn.comp.sys.amiga.tech: 17-Sep-88 Re: How satisfied are*
> *you w.. Peter da Silva@sugar.uu. (474)*

> Now I do agree that the sample IFF code is a lot more complex than it needs
> to be. A cleaner version of that would help immensely.


A better solution (which someone else mentioned is being worked upon) is to
make the IFF code into a dynamic library so we don't even have to look at it in
the first place.

Of course, a set of clean IFF code would help a lot with those who want to
understand how IFF works.  Perhaps the IFF library source code will be made
public?

How will the iff.library be revised to handle new IFF codes?  The Andrew
Toolkit environment is extensible by making each new piece of code its own
dynamically loadable object.  It is possible to extend the system merely by
writing a new code object and dumping it in a system directory -- nothing needs
to be recompiled.  If one basic iff.library were created, containing a general
IFF parser, and subsequent separate libraries for ILBM, 8SVX, SMUS, ANIM etc
were created, it would be possible to add new IFF formats merely by writing a
new library containing routines to handle that format and installing it.  None
of the other IFF libraries would have to be removed or changed, and it would be
possible for Amiga owners to quickly update their system software without
waiting for a new release of one monolithic library that handles a batch of new
formats.

Is someone on the IFF Working Group reading this newsgroup?  Could someone
forward this suggestion to them?

                                --M

Michael Portuesi / Information Technology Center / Carnegie Mellon University
ARPA/UUCP: mp1u+@andrew.cmu.edu                     BITNET: rainwalker@drycas

"my friends say she's a dumb blonde, but they don't know she dyes her hair"