Re: User Poll: Do you have access to PNG libraries?
SL Baur wrote:
>> Future versions of XEmacs will have greater dependence on
PNG when
>> we convert internal Xpm images to PNG.
At this point in time, "internal Xpm images" are the photos in
etc/photos.
OK; Xpm isn't (IMHO) appropriate for full-colour (or greyscale)
images. Although JPEG may be more appropriate than PNG for photos.
I'm also thinking of the toolbar icons, unless there's an
immediate problem with it.
Well, lack of symbolic colours is the obvious one.
> Oh dear. That's anyone that doesn't use `normal'
colours stuffed.
>> PNG provides lossless, highly compressed graphics with 24 bit color. It
>> is superior to everything that we are currently using.
> Except Xpm.
If you mean about the symbolic color names, that's the one feature in
Xpm I'd like to see implemented with PNG. Jareth is thinking about
how to implement it, I believe.
How easy will it be to add them with standard tools?
Besides the symbolic colours, there's also the ability to specify
different colours for mono, 4-level greyscale, greyscale and colour
displays.
Also, as Andy pointed out, you can edit Xpm images with a text editor
(or even sed), which is a useful feature.
Another point is that, on X at least, Xpm is the image format that
users are most likely to already have support for (I guess that BMP
would be the Windows equivalent). Many users will already be using
libXpm (e.g. for fvwm).
--
Glynn Clements <glynn(a)sensei.co.uk>