Displaying GIFs or TIFFs

[venu.p.gopal]

In article <8bDNUcG00WBK40xdsN at andrew.cmu.edu>, bh11+ at andrew.cmu.edu (Braddock John Hathaway) writes:
 
! I'm creating a database for a class that I'd like to make really
! polished ... I'd like part of this polish to include the display
! of a picture while the files are loading.  The database package
! that I'm using in Clarion on a 33MHz 386 Northgate (IBM clone).
! The display is VGA.
! 
! What I'm looking for is ANY information about how to display
! a GIF or a TIFF (or even a PICT) file on the screen.  I have
! some knowledge of C ... enough that I could probably take
! something written to display one of these formats on another
! system and change it to be DOS-VGA compatible.  Even the specs
! that any of these formats uses to encode information would be
! good.
! 
! I know that this may be more work than it is worth, but I'm also
! interested in it as a programming exercise as well.  If you have
! a recommendation as to which file format be a) most easy to deal
! with (re: smallest size), and b) quickest to display (re: will "pop"
! up onto the screen instead of taking 20 seconds), please let me
! know.
! 
! As a final note, please respond by either email or take note
! of "alt.graphics.pixutils" in the Followups-To header line

If you follow comp.graphics, you can get pointers (see the "read this
before you post" that's regularly posted) to obtaining source code for
various image manipulation packages.

Unless you want to develop the program yourself (for the experience, as you
say), it would be a lot simpler to get a site license for the class for 
one of the viewers (such as GIF/TIFF viewer VUIMAGE, GIF Viewer CSHOW etc.)
These are shareware and are available from SIMTEL as well as most bulletin
boards.


Venu P. Gopal   UUCP: ..!att!cbnewsc!vgopal   Internet: vgopal at cbnewsc.att.com