Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Sounds great!
    
    I'll have to try this soon. But.. How do I know if I already have
    DAS installed on my system?
    
    Thanks,
    Rich

    Looks like SkiNut::[public] is protected.
    
    ...r

	I have the same question a reply .1, plus I was wondering if there is
a directory of interesting DDIF files somewhere in the E-net.

	Miguel A. Alvarez

    
    re .1 and .2
    The shareabler images you need are:
       SYS$SHARE:IMG$SHRLIB.EXE  ( DAS )
       SYS$SHARE:CDA$ACCESS.EXE  (comes with DECwindows??)
    
    The directory is SKINUT::DUA1:[PUBLIC]  (no logical names here)

    I tried DDIF_TO_IFF.EXE on a scanned image that was saved as DDIF.
    I get the following message:
    ---------------------------------------------------
    Source Image: 232 pixels wide by 236 pixels high
    IBLM depth is 1
    Number of colors used = 2
    ---------------------------------------------------
    The then the image appears in a window with the name of the DDIF
    file. 
    In another window I was doing a "show proc/cont/id=.."
       The state went to mostly compute while the screen was being
       displayed then went to a LEF state.
    If I control Z out. I notice an IFF file was created that was double
    the size of the the DDIF file. 
    
    Is this file likely to be OK?
    
    Do I have to relink on my system? I've got all the sharable librarys
    that were discussed.
    
    Thanks
    Rich
    
    

We of the CDA group would prefer that you *not* copy the executable images
previously mentioned in order to get CDA Base Services and DECimage Application
Services support onto your systems.  These executable images are installed as
part of VMS V5.3 or later and that is how you should get them.  If you get them
through any means other than normal installation and then have problems, we
will not be able to help you.

Also, to get full CDA support (CDA converters and CDA viewers) you will need
to install DECwindows.

Finally, there are many samples DDIF files in

			DDIF::CDA$SAMPLES:



							John Middleton
							CDA Converter Library PL

    In regard to re.-1 and re.-2:
    
    I'm running VMS 5.3 with DECWindows installed. IE the CDA Base Services
    and DECimage are already installed. I only copied the DDIF_to_IFF.EXE
    
    ...r 
    

re .5

I'm not sure what you're questioning here, so I'll stab at everything.  Short
response is "everything looks normal to me".

The window's title bar should contain the name of the DDIF file.

The IFF file is written out before the image is displayed in the window. After
displaying the image in the window, DDIF_TO_IFF waits for a carriage return to
be typed from the keyboard.  Note that I don't handle expose events, wasn't
intended to be a viewer.  So if the window gets covered up, it won't repaint.

The conversion process is compute intensive.  Bitonal images will convert
fastest.  Most of the processing here is switching the bit order in all the
bytes.  Color images can take several to "take a coffee break" minutes to
convert.  There's alot of processing involved in dithering the image down to
four or five bits deep.  After that, the bits in the bytes have to be arranged
into the interleaved bitmap format.

File sizes are hard to compare.  A bitonal image in a DDIF file is usually
compressed, but not always.  If it is compressed, it can be compressed in one
of 2 or 3 ways, with the tradeoff being final size of the image .vs. the amount
of time to compress it.  The IFF file will be compressed using the byte-run
scheme implemented by the reader/writer code from EA.

I will put a program called IFFCHECK in the directory.  Run in by defining it
as a foreign command and supplying it with the name of an IFF file.
         $ XXX:==$[MYDIR]IFFCHECK
         $ XXX file.iff

This is a VMS version of the public domain program to check the integrity
of an IFF file.  It uses the IFF reader code from EA.  It hasn't been
completely ported yet, the headings are printed backwards for example, but
the final good/bad status message is clear.  The IFF file must be a stream
file, such as written by DDIF_TO_IFF.  The reader uses fseeks to move around
in the file (fseeks to record boundaries only with record files)

Gary

re .6

I spoke with John Middleton to clear up the confusion about the shareable
images.  CDA$ACESS and IMG$SHRLIB come with VMS V5.3. I was under the
impression that IMG$SHRLIB was part of the DAS installation kit (it used to
be), but is now part of the VMS kit.

I assured John I was not suggesting or implying that you copy these shareable
images from anywhere or get them via any means other than standard installation
procedures.  They are NOT in the public directory on SKINUT.

Gary

    It works! The only thing that though me was that I needed to hit a
    <CR> after the image was displayed as it looked to me that the program
    was hung. But it so far it's work on everything I've done.
    
    
    Thanks for the effort,
    
    Rich

    Anyone still got this utility ? I tried a directory of
    SKINUT::DUA1:[PUBLIC] and got invalid login information.
    
    Thanks
    	Mike
    
    p.s. looked on TAPE.