========================================================================= (C) 1993 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.Type XTX99437,GENIE and press [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for your information. ========================================================================== ************ Topic 33 Sun Jan 24, 1993 D.FARRINGTO1 [David <>< .] at 13:01 EST Sub: GEM-View 2.xx General questions about GEM-View. The picture viewing and manipulating program Dieter Fiebelkorn. 203 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 1 Sun Jan 24, 1993 D.FARRINGTO1 [David <>< .] at 13:01 EST Did anybody have trouble un-lharcing version 2.13? I using Questor's (SP) v2.01L or " K and during de-arcing GEM-View or something trashed my lharc programs. It messes them up to the point that they can't be used again. GEM- View has the right number of download bites. I get a write error no matter what drive I put the de-arced information on. Also, for those who have registered, what are "CRI's as mentioned at the botton of the "changes" doc. and do I need them to send to Dieter and where do I get them if needed? David <>< ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 2 Sun Jan 24, 1993 D.BOWMAN9 [DAVE B] at 21:27 EST David, I had no problem un-lharcing version 2.13. Used v201L with ArcShell 3.1. It is a great program. later, dave b 5:06:20 pm, Sunday, January 24, 1993 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~= ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 3 Sun Feb 07, 1993 F.PAWLOWSKI at 23:10 EST Version 2.13 is supposed to be able to save to a color GIF file. I don't seem to be able to get it to work. Anyone know how to do it? Frank ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 4 Mon Feb 08, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 01:25 EST Frank, You need to choose "Convert Picture" or type Control-N. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 5 Tue Feb 09, 1993 B.STOREY [Billy B.] at 07:21 EST I am using a 1040 STe with TOS 2.06. I tried GEMVIEW, and in Medium res. it shows a picture in 4 colors only, and about 1/8th of the screen. if I click on the FULLER button, it becomes about 1/4th of the screen. Is there a way to get it to do all the colors and full screen? ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 6 Tue Feb 09, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:56 EST Billy, You're only getting 4 colors, because that's all that's available in medium res. GEM-View is 100% legal (as far as I know) GEM, and as such, it's limited by GEM. It doesn't use any special tricks to show its pictures. If you want more colors, go to low res, and you'll then have 16 colors. Only way to get more than that with GEM-View is to improve your hardware. A press of ESC should give you the full screen -- or as much as GEM-View can put on your 640x200 or 320x200 screen. If the picture is bigger than your screen, you can scroll around with your cursor keys. If the picture is smaller than your screen, it's going take up only part of your screen. If you want an exact fit, use the Zoom function. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 7 Thu Feb 11, 1993 B.STOREY [Billy B.] at 07:05 EST Terry May, that sounds like just what I needed to know. Thank you! Bill ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 8 Thu Feb 11, 1993 SM [Music<>MIDI] at 22:46 EST This is gettign to be more and more useful all the time -- I lovethe fact that it can manage halftoning.... >>>>>>>Steve ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 9 Sat Feb 13, 1993 F.PAWLOWSKI at 11:50 EST Terry I have tried that but it wouldn't create a saved GIF file. Maybe I will extract it again and see if something got fouled up in the program. Frank ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 10 Sat Feb 13, 1993 W.DAVIS20 [Bill] at 12:11 EST Does Gem-View 2 work on STs. Can it convert from on rez to another. What I want to find is something that will make more pics available to me in medium REZ. Bill D. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 11 Sat Feb 13, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 16:42 EST Frank, What do you mean when you say "it wouldn't create a saved GIF" file? If you tell us exactly what's happening, we might be able to help you. What are you trying to convert, and where in the process is the hangup? -----8<----- Bill Davis, Yes to both questions. However, I prefer the commercial program STipple for converting pics to med res. Further info on STipple can be found in ZOCRA.LZH. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 13 Sun Feb 14, 1993 R.STUTZMAN2 [RUSS] at 19:34 EST Frank, I was able to get Gem-View 2.13 to save out a windows BMP to GIF although it did take me a bit of experimentation. Load Gem-View as a program. Select Convert pic from the file menu then select color from the dialog box, name the pic, then click on OK in the pic-options box. Some pictures take a little while to convert so be patient. When complete your GIF should show up in your selected output directory. It works for me so I hope this helps. Russ ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 14 Sun Feb 14, 1993 W.DAVIS20 [Bill] at 20:57 EST Terry, I want to convert to Hi Rez, not medium Rez. Is this STipple good for that? Medium Rez seems to be a dime adozen. Hi Rez on the other hand is few and far between. Is ZOCRA a text file or is it a program? Thanks for your response. Bill D. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 15 Sun Feb 14, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:26 EST Bill, Yes, STipple supports all three ST resolutions. It does a great job converting to high res, with several dithering options. I've used it to convert many GIFs and other formats to high res. ZOCRA.LZH is a press release for STipple and its big brother STyle. I use both quite a bit, but STipple more. STipple is better for converting between resolutions. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 16 Tue Feb 16, 1993 W.DAVIS20 [Bill] at 21:08 EST Terry, Thanks for the info. I'll D/L it and play with it a bit. Should would be nice to get some of those spectrums to where I could view them at bootup with superboot or as desktop pics with Warp9 on my hi Rez monitor. Bill D. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 17 Wed Feb 17, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 23:45 EST Bill, STipple would be just the ticket for you. I've converted literally hundreds of pics to med and high res for use as Warp 9 background pics, and dozens more to low res for startup pics or whatever. STipple is a pleasure to work with for doing this type of work. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 18 Fri Feb 19, 1993 W.DAVIS20 [Bill] at 23:51 EST Terry, Great! I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the tip. Bill D. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 19 Fri Apr 23, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 21:58 EDT Gemview 2.2 ----- Anyone got some translated docs for this? I'd be willing to pay copying charges, or something, for them. Also, suggestions for the easiest way to pay the shareware request to the German programmer. Terry, GEMvelope arrive okay? Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 20 Sat Apr 24, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 12:03 EDT Ken, I think Lexicor is looking into importing GEMview. You may want to check in the Lexicor topics. I don't remember which topic is was but they may be selling an English version in the near future. I think their working on it but the deal isn't final yet. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 21 Sun Apr 25, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 00:13 EDT Thanks, Joey Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 22 Sun Apr 25, 1993 B.PLATT1 [BP] at 11:11 EDT I have not translated the docs, but after experimenting with it, I wrote a short "how to use" file to include when I passed it on to my local BBS. It is about 8 pages long. I could upload it here, I am not sure if it infringes on anyones copywrite. It only written to include the features available on my 2 meg STe. I can E-mail it to you maybe, if I can figure out how to do so..... Bill ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 23 Sun Apr 25, 1993 ST.LOU [Lou Rocha] at 12:38 EDT Bill, are you using Aladdin? To email a file with a letter, simply click on the 4th line that says "Path/Filename". When the file selector appears, click the file name to be mailed. Then use Send Mail or Autopass to mail your letter and file. If you are not using Aladdin, type M200;11 to get to the right command. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 24 Sun Apr 25, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 13:27 EDT [BP] I just got email from a friend who says Lexicor just announced US rights to GEMview. Maybe they will post something here. As for emailing a file, assuming you use Aladdinn click on the path\file option in the Write GE Mail editor, and the item selector pops up. Just locate the file, double click on it, put in any text you may desire, and save the letter. Aladdin will automatically send the file attached to the letter. Pretty simple once you figure it out. If you or someone you know has Calamus, download the Aladdin help CDK recently uploaded by Lou Rocha. Those boys over in the ST Aladdin RT or whomever is responsible for the ST Aladdin manual could sure take a lesson from this file on how to write a manual. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 25 Sun Apr 25, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] at 18:19 EDT Yes, GemView will be part of the Lexicor Software utilities. It is an excellent image viewer. I have a Matrix card and GemView does an excellent job with 24bit TGA/ITF images as it dither them to 256 color. But if you are running on a CrazyDots it uses True Color modes. We now have a new topic for Gemview in the Lexicor Software Category #25. Ringo ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 26 Sun Apr 25, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 18:40 EDT Bill, You won't infringe on a copyright if you just upload the text to us. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 27 Sun Apr 25, 1993 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] at 21:46 EDT Ringo, Thanks Ringo. Therefore, I will close this topic on Friday the 30th April. Please post in the new topic. Thanks everyone. Brian ... Written on Sunday 25 April 1993 at 09:31 p.m. AST ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 28 Fri Apr 30, 1993 M.WEILERT2 [matt] at 02:29 EDT I keep saying I'm going to pay Dieter! I got e-mail from him on only about a day or two turnaround time, I was impressed. I did actually go to the effort of checking the cost of wiring the $20. It'd cost that much to get it there. It sounds like a real racket: charging for both send and receive. He said it'd cost DM 5 to cash a check so I guess I'll just do that this weekend. Does anyone else have the problem of the unregistered version locking up on occasion? My symptoms include pressing the mouse buttons will center the cursor, sorta like a "codekey" I've read elsewhere. Would go up to the menubar, not access it. I've not lost anything by having to reboot, it's a pain though. Regards, Matt ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 29 Fri Apr 30, 1993 D.FARRINGTO1 [David <>< .] at 05:13 EDT Matt: I've had no problems with lock-up. However, I only use the program about once a week. The few time I've used it no problems. Could you tell me how you sent him the money again. I did not quite understand. Thanks, David <>< ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 30 Wed May 05, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 00:03 EDT I see someone already uploaded 2.23. Man, missed it by a day or so. Oh well. :) There's always next version! Personally, I'm still using 1.2. It's 200K smaller, and can actully load a few files... :) The 330K beast barely even loads into memory, let alone load and display a picture. :D ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 31 Wed May 05, 1993 M.WEILERT2 [matt] at 10:34 EDT David, RE: msg 29 Actually, I've not yet sent the money (shamefully hiding face...) I checked out wiring the money to the "konto" he lists on his sign-on box. A konto is a German kind of bank account. Apparently funds transfer is common in Europe because of the need to exchange currencies. Dieter said it would cost him DM 5 to cash a check. It would cost me $15-$20 just to wire him the money. I'm going to ask Lexicor if the version of GEM- View they've advertised is available, then I can just pay them! If there's a hangup with Lexicor, I'll just send the dollar equivalent of DM 5 at the transfer rate the day I send to cover his costs, or maybe send a Deutchmark money order. You can do foreign currency cashier's cheques or money orders (not sure which) at larger banks, or commercial banks. See ya. Matt ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 32 Wed May 05, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] at 17:57 EDT I believe that Lee indicated in his post that he was considering sending in the Shareware payments to Dieter, NOT that he was collecting money on behalf of Dietar. I will contact Dietar through his friend Ralf at Cybercube and ask him how he wants to handle shareware payments that will make sense to us all here in North America. Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 33 Wed May 05, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 18:51 EDT You can just email Dietar directly if you still have Internet access. He's friendly, and usually responds in under a day. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 34 Wed May 05, 1993 LEXICOR2 [Ringo] at 20:07 EDT The Lexicor version of GEMview will have an english manual and resource file so the program will be all in english. GEMview will be part of the utilities that come included with each of the Lexicor products or the Lexicor utilities disk. No extra charge to customers, Lexicor will take care of the rest. Customers will send in their registration card back to Lexicor. The Lexicor version will have added features etc. Under the About menu GEMview will have: Lexicor Version of GEMview. The Shareware version will remain on the boards. We will have more information in the Lexicor Category #25. Ringo ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 35 Wed May 05, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 20:08 EDT Seems like an American distributor/collector would be the best method. Just let them collect the money and transfer it at the end of the month or something. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 36 Wed May 05, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] at 22:43 EDT I have the feeling that Lexicor is privy to information not available to the rest of us. Am I missing part of the conversation? ;-) Ralf at Cybercube is very good friends with Dieter. In a conversation with him a few days ago, Dieter asked Ralf to explain and pass along the following: ---- Yes, banks charges and fees run a lot higher in Germany than they do here and the way how you pay your bills differs a lot too. It is common practice to remit money. Only a few actually have personalized cheques, but a lot of people use 'EUROCHEQUES'. To use EUROCHEQUES, you simply ask your bank to issue a EUROCHEQUE-CARD, which looks like any normal credit card. Next time you are in a location that accepts EUROCHEQUES, you fill out a EUROCHEQUE (something that looks a bit like a travellers cheque and a normal cheque) and present it along with your card (for verification) to the cashier. Since you can use these cheques in a number of european countries, this concept has found a wide acceptance. However there is a limit on how much can be charged on a single cheque, and this differs from currency to currency. Unfortunately, the use of EUROCHEQUES is limited to ... well Europe. In Germany, most of your periodic payments will be withdrawn automatically from your bank account (hydro, gas, telephone, subscriptions, garbage, sewer etc). Bills are being paid by transferring or remmmitting the funds. Even the wages (almost all sorts of earnings for that matter) are directly deposited in your account. Basically, using a normal cheque is being considered 'antique'. Therefore Dieter's reluctance to accept any cheques. It is really a hassle to go through this process, especially if you are trying to cash a cheque issued in a foreign currency. There are at least three different fees the bank will charge during such a procedure, furthermore, it may take a while until the funds are finally deposited into your account. My advice would be to ask your bank about the most effective way to send him the money or simply mail him a cheque over the registration fee and add another $5 - $10 (depending on what you feel is fair, and please consider that Dieter tries his best to support his registered users and that he is *NOT* the one who is causing all these additional costs). I've discussed this matter already with Dieter and he is well aware of the situation. I'll try and see if we can come up with a different solution. One more thing: On Dieter's behalf, I would like to thank every user who registered his or her copy. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and will ensure future upgrades and new developments. Please continue to support Atari shareware authors. Ralf. ---- Ralf went on to say that they hadn't discussed Lexicor at all but that he will check with Dieter and get brought up to date. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 37 Thu May 06, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 20:26 EDT Hmm. Whenever I send money overseas, I just buy an international money order in whatever currency that country uses, and send that... Would Dieter have a problem with that, do you think? (Never even thought about trying to send US funds overseas. Hmm.) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 38 Thu May 06, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan] at 20:40 EDT Watch this topic for an important announcement from Dieter. Nathan (Atari RT Sysop) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 39 Fri May 07, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:25 EDT ----------------------- OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ------------------------ N E W D I S T R I B U T O R F O R .______. ._____. .__ __. ._. __.._. ._____. ._. __ / ._____! | .___! | \ / | | | / / | | | .___! | | ._. / / | | .__. | !__. | . \/ . | ._. | | / / | | | !__. | | / | / / | | !_ | | .__! | |\ /| | !_! | | / / | | | .__! | | / ! | / / | !___! | | !___. | | \/ | | | |/ / | ! | !___. | |/ /| |/ / \.___/!_! !_____! !_! !_! !___/ !_! !_____! !___/ !___/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Cybercube Research Limited, Canada has acquired the exclusive rights to distribute Dieter Fiebelkorn's GEM-View in North America. Effective immediately, Cybercube Research Ltd. will solely handle all customer support, registration, upgrade and marketing related issues. The existing versions of GEM-View will remain SHAREWARE while the new versions will only be available as a COMMERCIAL product. For more information about our extensive upgrade policy, a full list of the new and extended features, the next release or pricing simply refer to our upcoming GEM-View press releases. If you have any additional questions, please send your e-mail to CYBERCUBE or contact us at: Cybercube Research Limited 126 Grenadier Crescent Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, L4J 7V7 Tel. (416) 882 0294 Fax (416) 886 3261 BBS (416) 882 5895 GEnie CYBERCUBE We would like to thank all GEM-View users for their continued support and look forward to a exciting and new co-operation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 40 Sat May 08, 1993 PMC.INC at 00:48 EDT Nathan, maybe you can enlighten us as I'm sure most of the public is now as confused as I am (or maybe not, but I'm confused damn it ;-) Is Lexicor doing the distribution of it or has there been sort of behind the scenes stuff going on. And who is CyberCube (Ralf) and why have they all of the sudden made an announcement to distribute GEM VIEW after Lexicor expressed interest to support the product? thanks, mike wallac... er oscar ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 42 Sat May 08, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] at 11:01 EDT Due to the legal issues that Lee implied, we are closing out the GemView areas until we receive information from Deiter. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our members but we are left with no choice. I am told by one party that this will be Tuesday. I have not heard from the 2nd party involved. For those involved, please see me in mail. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 43 Tue May 11, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] at 21:06 EDT This topic is now open for Gemview discussions. All messages on this siubject found elsewhere will be moved here at request of the author of Gemview. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 44 Wed May 12, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 19:33 EDT Dieter actully requested that? ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 45 Wed May 12, 1993 L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] at 22:29 EDT M.WEILERT2 [matt], >Does anyone else have the problem of the unregistered version locking up on >occasion? My symptoms include pressing the mouse buttons will center the >cursor, sorta like a "codekey" I've read elsewhere. Would go up to the >menubar, not access it. I've not lost anything by having to reboot, it's a >pain though. Matt, I have the same problem with both the STE and the TT030. I try not to use it that often for that reason. I would like to support this shareware product, but I guess I am waiting to see what is going on with it between Cybercube and Lexicor. --Lou T.-- ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 46 Tue Jun 22, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] at 09:23 EDT INET# Document Id: UX010.BUX0001328 Item 2722874 93/06/22 10:09 From: FIEBELKO@CHARLY.INFORMATIK.UNI-DORT@INET# To: DARLAH Darlah Potechin Sub: offical announcement From fiebelko@charly.informatik.uni-dortmund.de Tue Jun 22 13:11:05 1993 Received: from waldorf.Informatik.uni-dortmund.de by relay2.geis.com with SMTP (1.37.109.4/15.6) id AA23183; Tue, 22 Jun 93 13:11:05 +0100 Received: from charly.Informatik.uni-dortmund.de by waldorf.informatik.uni-dortmund.de with SMTP (5.65+/UniDo 1.0.28) id AA25633; Tue, 22 Jun 93 14:09:32 +0200 Message-Id: <9306221209.AA20854@charly.informatik.uni-dortmund.de> Received: from loopback by charly.informatik.uni-dortmund.de id AA20854; Tue, 22 Jun 93 14:09:30 +0200 To: darlah@genie.geis.com, cybercube.research@canrem.com, drnibble@wpi.WPI.EDU Cc: fiebelko@charly.informatik.uni-dortmund.de Subject: offical announcement In-Reply-To: Your message of Sat, 08 May 93 20:42:00 -0400. <9305090045.AA19655@relay1.geis.com> Date: Tue, 22 Jun 93 14:09:29 N From: Dieter Fiebelkorn For GEnie.Graphics.GEM-View: It is allowed to upload newer versions into GEnie. --------- All agreements with Cybercube Research Limited are herewith reinstated. Cybercube has been granted the right to collect and bundle registration applications on my behalf. Cybercube will send these applications to my address in Germany for registration. Lexicor requested the right to provide customer support. Lexicor has been granted the right to explain the registration procedure on my behalf. However, Lexicor is not authorized to accept or relay any registration applications, cheques or payments. 1) The SHAREWARE versions of GEM-View may be freely copied. These copies of GEM-View must be provided as: a) a SHAREWARE product, and b) free of charge. In case the GEM-View copy is being requested by mail, a maximum $3 shipping and handling fee may apply. 2) All interested users may discuss GEM-View related topics. Efforts to explain the formalities of the registration process will be kindly appreciated. Discussions must be limited to the existing and available SHAREWARE versions. The creation of any new GEM-View forum or topic requires my prior written permission. 3) The right to accept registration applications and the handling of such applications requires my prior written permission and may be obtained if applied for. No charges greater than $1 per GEM-View copy should incur to the user due to such services. 4) I will solely and personally handle all registrations of the SHAREWARE versions. The user will, depending on the version, either receive a personalized registered copy or his personal registration key directly from me. The party that collected and bundled the registration applications will not be involved in the actual registration process. 5) GEM-View must always be provided on its own disk(s). If GEM-View is being distributed on a disk or disks containing files or applications which are not a part of the existing GEM-View package, a special file containing an appropriate copyright notice must be obtained through me and added on the same disk(s) along with the other GEM-View files. Users that obtain their copy of GEM-View from such disks still have to register their copy. It is not allowed to include the registration fee in the price of the disk containing the GEM-View package. In all cases, I require prior notification of any intentions to provide GEM-View in conjunction with other files, applications or utilities and a copy of such a disk must be forwarded to my address. 6) Any interested party may compile and distribute any form of documentation for GEM-View. Special care must be excercised to make the user aware of the fact that he still has to register his copy of GEM-View even if he acquires any such documentation. - customers must be made aware of the additional registration. - if the documentation is being provided in printed form: a special notice on the cover page must be included, stating that an independend third party is responsible for the contents and that the author of GEM-View was not involved with the process of compiling the documentation. - if the documentation is being provided on a disk or other form of electronic media: a a special notice on a highly visible area (e.g. label) must be included, stating that an independend third party is responsible for the contents and that the author of GEM-View was not involved with the process of compiling the documentation. - If the customer requests both, the documentation and a copy of GEM-View at the same time, the distributor/retailer must make sure to avoid any suggestion or impression that the customer aquired the rights on the GEM-View program as well. The customer still has to separately register his copy. I would greatly appreciate the receipt of a sample of any such documentations made available for GEM-View users. 7) All of the above listed rules apply to the SHAREWARE versions of GEM-View only. These are (at the present date) all versions up to and including 2.30! SHAREWARE versions can be easily identified in the dialog box 'About GEM-View'. Dieter Fiebelkorn, 22.06.1993 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Dieter Fiebelkorn | | Gruener Weg 29a | | D(W)-4370 Marl 1 (Germany) +---------------------------+ | 1. Juli 1993: D-45768 Marl (Germany) | With a rubber duck :-) | | fiebelko@sally.informatik.uni-dortmund.de | one's never alone! :^{ | ----------------------------------------------+---------------------------- =END= ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 47 Tue Jun 22, 1993 J.NESS [Jim] at 17:08 EDT I love those Internet headers. Deiter must have found somebody to write this message in better English than he is normally capable of. I'm glad this has all finally worked out. It appears that Lexicor can continue to include the shareware version of Gemview in a utilities package, although it appears they'll have to put in on a separate diskette. Is Lexicor now back to their full role here? -JN ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 48 Tue Jun 22, 1993 Y.SIU at 20:24 EDT J. [Cess to answer your one question about Lexicor I believe so ;-) Lexicor is now distributing the shareware version with the Nova Graphics Card (Check itand with for no charge at all. Yat ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 49 Tue Jun 22, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] at 20:50 EDT Jim: It takes a great deal of time for me to get a reply from Deiter due to the translations that are necessary. It appears he has someone he can trust at home that can help him out. I appreciate his insight and hopefully this will clarify matters. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 50 Tue Jun 22, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:50 EDT Darlah, Many thanks for the GEM-View update! I'll pass along the information through AtariNet... __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 51 Wed Jun 23, 1993 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] at 10:33 EDT I appreciate it, Terry. I just wish we got responses quicker but I understand the need for translating. I would have to get on my knees to the German staff or to Dorothy to translate if he didn't get me it in English. :-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 52 Wed Jun 23, 1993 B.WEHLER [B.WEHLER] at 22:04 EDT Why is GEM-View so slow at loading and displaying 256 color GIF's. We're talking upwards of a minute for some. I use a MegaST4 with Turbo20. My hard drive busy light blinks once about every 5 sec. Once that stops, another 30 sec. or so before pic is displayed. Not that this is a bad program, but that is awful slow. Bill ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 53 Fri Jun 25, 1993 W.PARKS3 [Dr. Bob] at 00:01 EDT Bill, Unfortunatly, there are several levels of proceesing that need to be done to GIF files before they can be displayed on an ST. First, you have to unpack it. That is probably the slowest part of all. SOme good tweaking may speed it up somewhat but it's tight to begin with. Second, the now unpacked image is in memory in the standard 8bpp form. That's 8-bits-per-pixel. The defacto-standard form is to put all those bits into one single byte. It's easy to manage and easy to manipulate in that form. BUT.... the Atari 256-color video doesn't use 8bpp in single bytes. It has to be converted to Atari video format. This isn't a slow process but it adds to the overall time. And from what I've seen, GEM-View also then proceeds to re-order the color palette so that the menu-bar and windows keep their original colors. This too isn't too lengthy a process but add it to the above and you get close to a minute for some 640x480 images. I haven't investigated the DSP in the Falcon very much yet. It may be that the DSP coould be used to spped up the unpacking but... who knows yet. Greg's XGA samples and the TGA samples on the Falcon both take a advantage of uncompressed images and appear to be lightning fast. There's a trade off. Raw files take up more disk space and load quickly. Packed files take up less space but require extra processing time. I can't wait for 100MHz cpus and 100GB drives Bye: Dr. Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 54 Fri Jun 25, 1993 DMJ [dmj] at 21:02 EDT It's really not too slow a job to unpack GIFs. Take a look at Speed of Light, which does the job faster than almost any program I know. (Almost... ;-) DMJ GIF 3.1 /loads/ the GIF fairly quickly; it's the converting that slows it dwn. In any case... there is room for improvement in this area of GEM-View. (Other areas work just fine.) -dmj ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 55 Sat Jun 26, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] at 01:33 EDT >Why is GEM-View so slow at loading and displaying 256 color GIF's. We're >talking upwards of a minute for some. I use a MegaST4 with Turbo20. My hard >drive busy light blinks once about every 5 sec. Once that stops, another 30 >sec. or so before pic is displayed. Not that this is a bad program, but that >is awful slow. I'm using a TT and I agree it's slow. I asked Dieter about this and he said that version 2.30 will be optimized. In any case, I'm planning on registering soon. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 56 Sun Jun 27, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 02:47 EDT A little hint there, Damien? :) Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 57 Sun Jun 27, 1993 PMC.INC at 13:24 EDT Ed, you should definitely look into Speed of Light. I just saw it the other day and it was much more impressive in this respect than Gem View. The programmer really knows his way around graphics. oscar ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 58 Sun Jun 27, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] at 15:32 EDT Oscar, Yes, I have Speed of Light 2.6, the latest version, and I've been planning on registering. It's quite fast. Alas, it doesn't support hi-res graphics cards and doesn't conform to the GEM interface. Looks like I'm going to be spending some money on graphics utilities soon. Speed of Light, GEM-View, and View II from DMJ. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 59 Mon Jun 28, 1993 DMJ [dmj] at 00:15 EDT Al: Not necessarily a hint, just pointing out that it often pays to keep track of the "little" things. For example, the PC world seems to operate on the basic assumption of "If your program isn't fast enough, it's the computer's fault. Replace it [the computer]." I believe software should be optimized if it shows obvious slow points, rather than suggest a hardware solution. This seems to be getting off-topic a bit, though, so I won't discuss it (or my editorial views about PCs) any further here. -dmj ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 60 Mon Jun 28, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 17:43 EDT Damien, Excellent point about optimizing software instead of ditching the hardware. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 61 Wed Jun 30, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 19:15 EDT Hi, just noticed your discussion about the speed of some of the functions of GEM-View. Naturally there is always room for improvements in any program, and Dieter is definetely trying his best to make it faster and better with every update, and yes, there are other programs that do certain functions faster than GEM-View, but there are some points to be considered as well: - GEM-View is a program designed to be used in a multi-tasking environment. So it has to adhere to some rules, use the OS whenever possible and still leave some CPU power to other applications. This is obviously not as fast as optimized code or routines that maximize throughput. - GEM-View further has to do a good house-keeping job when it comes to memory management. You still want to run and use something else besides it. Thus GEM-View can't just load the image in one big chunk and then process it. Instead, it has to load it 'bit by bit', process it, and then finally do all the conversion work from it's own internal format into whatever format your video hardware is using (Atari, OverScan, graphics cards etc). - Compiled program vs hand-coded programs. Whenever the issue of speed, throughput and power comes up, you have to realize the way how programs are written and why the author has made that particular choice. GEM-View is mainly written in a so called 'high level' language, which means it has to be compiled and therefore will probably never be as efficient as a program that has been coded 'by hand'. But why do programmers use compiler's at all ? Well, one major reason is the ease of managing the source code and the debugging process. Have a look at the size that GEM-View has reached by now. Can you imagine what it would take to debug such an application if it would be written entirely in machine language ? Therefore, in order to cut development time (you certainly appreciate any new update or revision that Dieter manages to bring out) and to maintain a good overview about all the changes and modifications in the source, it makes sense to stay with compilers and high level languages. Hope I dind't bore you with all these technical details, Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 62 Wed Jun 30, 1993 DMJ [dmj] at 23:10 EDT Ralf, You've made some very valid points concerning program development. I can relate to the "humoungous program syndrome" as Sound Lab's code is like that. Using a high-level language keeps it manageable. However, given the conditions you indicated (multitasking and writing a well- behaved program) it is still possible to write a more efficient GIF loader using a high-level language--even using a small buffer. Not that I'm trying to rag on GEM-View. As I hope I've said before, it is an excellent program. -dmj ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 63 Thu Jul 01, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 17:57 EDT Ralf, It's not the job of GEM-View to "leave some some CPU power to other applications." It's the job of the task manager. The latest GEM-View runs very nicely under the new multitasker from Gribnif. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 64 Fri Jul 02, 1993 W.PARKS3 [Dr. Bob] at 19:02 EDT All respect to GEM-View and to Speed-of-Light. But I do not believe that an efficient GIF loader could be writen in a hi-level language. Perhaps the user interface could be written just fine in whatever hi-level language is preffered by the author but the essence of the GIF decoder has to be done in as low-level a language as possible. I've been tweaking my GIF loader and a simple change from a decrementing counter to a DBF instruction shows a significant speed up. On the Falcon, it's more sensitive. The location of subroutines affects the speed. An interesting note: If I place just ONE keypress check in a outside raster loop, the decoding time increases by 50% easy. If I use an evnt_mult gosh... I double the time. All in all, I find both GEM-View and SpeedofLight to be quite good! Bye: Dr. Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 65 Sat Jul 03, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 03:14 EDT Dr.Bob, I have great respect for anyone who can just get a GIF file on the screen.:-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 66 Sun Jul 04, 1993 J.STANFORD2 [John] at 00:11 EDT Al: As Dr Bob notes when writing AES software to run in a Multi-TOS environment and multi-task it is necessary to repeatedly call the AES event manager, which slows things down dramatically. If you don't then while the program is doing its thing you can't switch the active application to another process. So while Multi-TOS is still multi-tasking, you however are not as you can't get access to anything else. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 67 Mon Jul 05, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 07:49 EDT Damien, > However, given the conditions you indicated (multitasking and writing > a well- behaved program) it is still possible to write a more > efficient GIF loader using a high-level language--even using a small > buffer. Quite right. I was not referring to the GIF loader in particular, more to the general way how GEM-View has to behave the OS context. Dieter has been working continuously on the program, adding features all over the place. It was more important to have a very flexible way to handle a large variety of formats than to process them in the fastest way possible. Once it worked, Dieter concentrated on other issues, most of the time catching up with all the new features his user base demanded. But I am sure that he will take your ideas and suggestions very serious and try his best to improve GEM-View's performance and usefulness. This is one of the reasons why he welcomes this topic and the discussions related to his program. Al, > It's not the job of GEM-View to "leave some some CPU power to other > applications." It's the job of the task manager. The latest GEM-View > runs very nicely under the new multitasker from Gribnif. It should not be. =-) But due to the structure and organisation of GEM, the OS requires some 'cooperation' from the application in order to make the multi-tasking concept work. You can test this yourself, just try to run a couple of programs that do some heavy computing without any screen output, keyboard testing etc. What you will end up with is a machine that is being blocked by one application. The present GEM implementation REQUIRES that a program periodically issues some specific OS calls in order to enable the OS to switch the tasks. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 68 Wed Jul 07, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 20:22 EDT Hi, I informed Dieter about the concerns some of you had about the speed of GEM-View when performing certain image conversion functions. He told me that he has completely re-written major parts of GEM-View, affecting various features, including the conversion process. The new versions will have a user-defined parameter for the conversion buffer size. This, together with the rewrite, cuts down considerably on the processing time and allows a more flexible control about the allocation of system resources and the specific needs of the user. I am expecting some more information from him and I'll let you know as soon as I get it. VIS Format: Unfortunately I couldn't find out anything about this image format. It certainly does not seem to be related to VIDAS at all. Sorry, can't be of much help here. But if anybody has some more information about it, we would gladly discuss it here and Dieter is still accepting suggestions about additional file formats to be added to the ever increasing GEM-View list. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 69 Sat Jul 10, 1993 R.KEENE2 at 13:22 EDT I have a question about converting images in GEM-view. Is there a way to convert a GIF file to a TIFF file. This probably the main reason I want to use GEM-view and if it can be done then my check would be in the mail. Which reminds me. Is their an easy way to pay Dieter for this? Thanks. Rick ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 70 Sat Jul 10, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 15:35 EDT CYBERCUBE Any projected dates for a version with English docs? That's what I am waiting for. Has anyone asked for WPG graphics support? From Word Imperfect? Sol Guber wrote a utility to convert WPG files a couple of years ago, and it has worked fine on everyone I have tried to convert except for the files created with Draw Perfect version 1.1 made by coworkers. Over in the Word Perfect RT, the only program suggested that was supposed to be able to handle it is HiJaak, a commercial prg at a commercial price. With the number of WP users in the world, this might not be a bad format to add. Well, you did ask for suggestions. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 71 Sat Jul 10, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 18:56 EDT Rick, If GEM-View won't convert from GIF to TIFF, STyle will. However, it's a commercial product. You can obtain further info by downloading ZOCRA.LZH from the library. A demo of STyle (STY_DEMO.LZH?) is also available, though most formats are disabled. Note that Zocra has recently changed address, though. You need ZOCRA793.TXT for that. :^) __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 72 Sat Jul 10, 1993 R.KEENE2 at 22:47 EDT Thanks for the STyle tip. I'll check it out. I think GEM-view will convert from GIF to TIFF, but it's a mystery to me. I think the latest ST Informer has a review of STyle, so the timing is good. Thanks. Rick ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 73 Sun Jul 11, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 03:24 EDT Ralf and John, Thanks for the clarifications on how GEM behaves. I'm late with this comment, having just endured 100+ heat at the beach for six days. (Could have been worse, no doubt.) Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 74 Sun Jul 11, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 03:26 EDT Rick, If you have the latest GEMview try the menu options inside the Window that holds the actual picture. Move down to save then over to the side I believe. Some of the older versions don't support saving in TIFF but I know the last one uploaded does. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 75 Sun Jul 11, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] at 13:35 EDT >I have a question about converting images in GEM-view. Is there a way >to convert a GIF file to a TIFF file. This probably the main reason I >want to use GEM-view and if it can be done then my check would be in >the mail. Yes, you can convert them to TIFF files using the Save function. It actually gives you a choice of formats, including 3 TIFF formats: packed, 8 BPS, and true color. >Which reminds me. Is their an easy way to pay Dieter for this? I've been communicating with him on the Internet to find out the best way to do this. Just send it to his address in Germany and add $3 for changing USD > DM. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 76 Sun Jul 11, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 15:05 EDT Rick, If you read the STyle review, I'd like to hear what they have to say about it (in general terms, of course). __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 77 Sun Jul 11, 1993 R.KEENE2 [Rick] at 18:21 EDT I'll say one thing for you guys, you're quick with a response. Thanks, but I hope you had time to go out and enjoy the heat wave this weekend. Thanks for the TIFF saving comments. I think I do have the latest upload. I can't check the version # at the moment but it's from February of '93. Terry - The review of STyle was very favorable and compared it with STipple which is primarily a viewer. STyle includes a histograph function for changing colors and contrasts, and converts to a wider selection of file types. GEM- view was also mentioned and was stated as being more MTOS compatible. Donovan Vicha wrote the review and he did say that things could have changed since the versions of STyle and STipple had been around for awhile. Rick Keene ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 78 Sun Jul 11, 1993 C.CASSADAY [Chris C.] at 20:58 EDT Rick, >GEM-view was also mentioned and was stated as being more MTOS >compatible. GEM-View supports the drag and drop protocol of MultiTOS. You can drag icons out of your desktop window and drop them onto the GEM-View window and it will load them. I'm pretty close to registering it myself. I haven't messed around with the newest version enough to be sure... Chris ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 79 Sun Jul 11, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:51 EDT Rick, I would take issue with the notion that STipple is mainly a viewer. I own both STipple and STyle and have used STipple for converting graphics far more than I have STyle. I've converted literally hundreds of GIFs to standard STE resolutions, primarily for use as Warp 9 background pics. The exceptional dithering options in STipple are perfect for that function. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 80 Mon Jul 12, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] at 22:59 EDT >GEM-View supports the drag and drop protocol of MultiTOS. You can >drag icons out of your desktop window and drop them onto the GEM-View >window and it will load them. I'm pretty close to registering it >myself. I haven't messed around with the newest version enough to be >sure... This drag and drop thing has been in TOS since 2.05, and in NeoDesk before that. You're not restricted to dropping only one icon, but you can even drop multiple icons onto one program, and if it follows the protocol correctly, it will load them all. I just tested this in Geneva, BTW. Put Aladdin to sleep, and loaded eight text files into GEM-View by dragging the icons to the GEM-View icon on the desktop. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 81 Tue Jul 13, 1993 C.CASSADAY [Chris C.] at 02:35 EDT Ed, >This drag and drop thing has been in TOS since 2.05, and in NeoDesk >before that. You're not restricted to dropping only one icon, but >you can even drop multiple icons onto one program, and if it follows >the protocol correctly, it will load them all. I was referring to after GEM-View had loaded. Not just when you initially launch the program. After you run MultiTOS, you can switch back to the desktop and grab files and drag them to the GEM-View window and it will load/identify. I presume that it works the same way under Geneva. Chris ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 82 Tue Jul 13, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:37 EDT Ed, Actually, single drag-'n'-drop has been built into TOS from the start (1.0). Multiple d-n-d came with the later TOS versions. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 83 Tue Jul 13, 1993 D.STMARTIN [Binary Ink] at 08:00 EDT OUTRIDER: Seeing as you have STipple and STyle, perhaps you could answer a question for me: Will either of the two programs clip from a .TIF file and dump the clipped portion to a .TIF? I have need for just such a function. ANYONE: If anyone is familiar with a program for the ST that will accomplish this, I'd like to know about it. While Touch-Up 1.84 provides a similar function, it has restrictions in the loading, conversion, and dumping of the clipped file. Any other solutions are solicited and appreciated. -- Dave @ Binary Ink ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 84 Tue Jul 13, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 09:48 EDT Dave, STipple has no editing capabilities, per se, but STyle will allow you to clip an image and save it to any format it supports, including TIFF. I think GEM-View allows you to clip and save an image, but I don't know if it retains the original palette and colors like STyle does. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 85 Tue Jul 13, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 20:26 EDT Rick, > I have a question about converting images in GEM-view. Is there a way > to convert a GIF file to a TIFF file. This probably the main reason I > want to use GEM-view and if it can be done then my check would be in > the mail. Which reminds me. Is their an easy way to pay Dieter for this? Yep, all the newer versions of GEM-View have an integrated saving option. The saving option even works with scaling, clipping and it takes either the original palette or a modified one. You can select to either save your image in one out of three different types: monochrome formats, 8bit formats as well as several true color formats. The format selection increased with every new version that Dieter released. So it would be best to check your version for a complete list. To do this, look for the menu entry: CONVERT image, then specify your destination and filename and select one of the available formats. You can also select the EXPORT option from within the image window itself. To register your copy, either send the registration fee directly to Dieter in Germany, or you can send it to our address (Cybercube Research Ltd., 126 Grenadier Cr., Thornhill, Ont, L4J 7V7, Canada). We collect these registration applications and mail them to Dieter. In either you will receive your registered copy directly from him. Also, please add $3 for bank and handling fees. Ken, > Any projected dates for a version with English docs? That's > what I am waiting for. There are several english documentations planned and being prepared. All newer versions include a brief outline of the feature set and it's use in english. Our own documentation is geared towards the commercial version. > Has anyone asked for WPG graphics support? From Word Imperfect? Not that I know of. But I think it is a good idea and I'll mention it to Dieter. Any suggestions as to where we can find a specific documentation about this format ? > Well, you did ask for suggestions. Yes we did and we welcome them. *,* \_/ Al, >... having just endured 100+ heat at the beach for six days. Seems you had a hell of a good time down there... +.< \_/ Ed, > I've been communicating with him on the Internet to find out > the best way to do this. Just send it to his address in Germany > and add $3 for changing USD. Thanks for the help Ed. Everyone that wishes to communicate with Dieter over the InterNet: Dieter checks his account once or twice a week now. So please allow at least a week before you might get an response. Chris, > GEM-View supports the drag and drop protocol of MultiTOS. > You can drag icons out of your desktop window and drop them > onto the GEM-View window and it will load them. Correct! Try it with more than one selected icon as well! =-> But here is a even more exciting feature: Dieter just improved his implementation of the XACC protocol which now supports images being sent between applications, remotely controled windowing and conversion functions. Check out the XACC folder that comes with the new versions. > I'm pretty close to registering it myself. I haven't messed > around with the newest version enough to be sure... Let me know which versions are out there and I'll see to it that we update them... Ed, > You're not restricted to dropping only one icon, but you can even drop > multiple icons onto one program, and if it follows the protocol > correctly, it will load them all. Yep. GEM-View also works very nicely together with the german file selector SELECTRIC. Can anyone report his experiences with other file selectors as well ? Dave, > Will either of the two programs clip from a .TIF file and dump the > clipped portion to a .TIF? GEM-View will do so. There is one thing however that you have to watch out for: You cannot clip an image in GEM-View if you are displaying it in a scaled mode (if you e.g. used the ALT- +/- keys to zoom/shrink). Other than that, saving clips and even adjusted color palettes is a snap. For color corrections, try the CyReL Palette Master, which works wonderfully with GEM-View. Sorry, couldn't resitst. Shameless plug, I know... *,* \_/ Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 86 Tue Jul 13, 1993 T.HEBEL [Spud Boy] at 22:36 EDT Could you ask Dieter to include PNT support (that is the output from Lexicor's Prism Paint.)? ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 87 Tue Jul 13, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 23:00 EDT Ralf, Could you please pass along to Dieter that the GEM-View 2.30 install program will not work when ran from HotWire. Although I don't read German, it appears that the three alerts it gives you indicates that it cannot find the three .PAX files. It doesn't mind that HotWire is installed, but it only works if ran from the desktop. A more minor problem is it gives me a busy bee upon loading and never does give me a regular pointer. This is on a 520ST with TOS 1.4. Thanks... __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 88 Wed Jul 14, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 03:22 EDT Ralf, Yes, GV works fine with the new item selector built into Geneva, which allows multiple files to be passed to an application. Al (Geneva beta tester) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 89 Wed Jul 14, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 07:02 EDT I'd like to see GEMview also do a slide show where you could just choose a directory and have it load and display each picture. Even multiple formats. Actually I'd juts like to have a slidshow program that works in resolutions other then ST Low and displays GIF's and TGA's.:-) The Falcon came with a TGA viewer but it only seems to to view the TGA's included. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 90 Wed Jul 14, 1993 ATARIAUSTRIA [J.Widi] at 08:21 EDT Ed, the 'drag & drop' protocol supported by MultiTOS is something completely apart from the things You mentioned. It is far more elaborate and allows You for instance to cut items from an application's window and paste it into the window of another application without having to access the clipboard. GEM-View is one of the first applications that take advantage of these features and allows You to drag files onto GEM-View's _window_ to display them. It also supports the MultiTOS hook for replacing the desktop file view function. -Johannes ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 91 Wed Jul 14, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:40 EDT T.HEBEL, I've discussed the possibility with Dieter to include the *.PNT format. This all happened at a time when the sad incident with Lexicor took place. After that, Dieter was not very enthusiastic about putting it in. But we all would like to put this issue to rest and I will inform Dieter about your request. Anybody else interested in the *.PNT format ? Let's see, maybe we can even turn things around and convince everybody that it is really time to work together, not against each other. Terry, thanks for the tip. Again, I'll pass it along and ask Dieter to improve the path handling (if that is really the cause for your troubles). As for the busy bee: I've never ran across that one. Can you tell us when exactly this happens ? Only in the installation program or also in the actual GEM-View program ? Al, thanks for the info about Geneva. This seems to be a really interesting OS upgrade. Where can I get more details about it ? Joey, There is a good posibility that you will see something like a slideshow program for GEM-View in the future. Remeber I told you about the XACC protocoll (a independent application can send messages to GEM-View to display images, convert images and more) ? Well, it would only take some bits and pieces here and there and your most versatile slide show program would be ready. Add a few titles and overlays using SpeedoGDOS and you have a multi-media package... not to forget those wonderful MOD players... *,* \_/ So, anybody interested in more informations ? =-> Johannes, thank you for your nice comments. Hope to see you more often around here. *,* \_/ Is there someone else who could share his experiences about GEM-View and Multi-TOS with us ? OK, so much for now. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 92 Wed Jul 14, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 19:38 EDT I snagged 2.31 off ftp.uni-kl.de this afternoon. If it isn't in the list of new uploads tommorow night I'll send it up that evening. (It's a big file, about 600K.) Too large for me to run, so I can't tell you what's new or different. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 93 Wed Jul 14, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 20:06 EDT I really hate it when a Targa viewer or convertor won't handle all Targa formats. ;( Grr. It's like a GIF program only handling '89 and not '87 GIF's or something. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 94 Wed Jul 14, 1993 AEO.5 [Ed Krimen] at 22:34 EDT I'm interested in PNT format. Jon, is 2.31 on atari.archive? Could you upload it there? ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 95 Wed Jul 14, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 23:24 EDT Ralf, There's a Geneva topic here. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 96 Thu Jul 15, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 00:10 EDT Ralf, The problems I mentioned are with the installation program only. It does appear to be some sort of path problem, but it doesn't make any sense. I tried running the files from the root directory of a floppy, but it still couldn't find the .PAX files. This doesn't make any sense, because HotWire is a very solid program that has no problem with changing the work directory. Perhaps the install program just doesn't like to be ran from a shell. As for the busy bee, again it is with the installation program only. I get it as soon as it brings up the initial registration screen and it never does give me a regular pointer. Of course, this is running it from the desktop, since I don't get to the registration screen when trying to run it from HotWire. -----8<----- Jon, In case you didn't know, v2.30 and above are 14 day demos for all unregistered users. I hope you put that in the description, else you're liable to get a few nastygrams from people downloading a 600+k 14-day demo, if they aren't warned ahead of time. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 97 Thu Jul 15, 1993 M.POCHE [Mick] at 01:15 EDT Ralf - I second the idea of *.PNT support in GEM-View. The more formats, the better! - Mick ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 98 Thu Jul 15, 1993 MUSE [Tomas] at 02:22 EDT Hi, I just thought I'd boldly mention that CodeHead's Warp 9 Falcon upgrade is likely to include a SlideShow EOS module. I say "likely" because it may end up in the upcoming Extend-O-Pak. It was demoed at the Conn. show. One of the file formats supported is .PNT. You simply point the module to a directory and save your configuration. This would either take the pressure off Dieter to support .PNT as a viewer or cause a small clammer over the need to convert other graphics formats to .PNT. Hmmmm... Does anyone know how Dieter pronounces his name? ===Tomas=== ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 99 Thu Jul 15, 1993 K.ESTES [Kenne@SFRT] at 02:35 EDT Like the guy from Passport one hopes.... ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 100 Thu Jul 15, 1993 C.CASSADAY [Chris C.] at 21:23 EDT >I've discussed the possibility with Dieter to include the *.PNT >format. This all happened at a time when the sad incident with >Lexicor took place. After that, Dieter was not very enthusiastic >about putting it in. But we all would like to put this issue to rest >and I will inform Dieter about your request. Anybody else interested >in the *.PNT format ? Let's see, maybe we can even turn things around >and convince everybody that it is really time to work together, not >against each other. Good answer! I'm for supporting the PNT format. Extend that olive branch. Break bread, make peace! And so on... >There is a good posibility that you will see something like a >slideshow program for GEM-View in the future. Remeber I told you >about the XACC protocoll (a independent application can send messages >to GEM-View to display images, convert images and more) ? >Well, it would only take some bits and pieces here and there and your >most versatile slide show program would be ready. Add a few titles >and overlays using SpeedoGDOS and you have a multi-media package... >not to forget those wonderful MOD players... *,* \_/ >So, anybody interested in more informations ? =-> What was that address to register GEM View again? [;^) BTW, the latest version I have is 2.24 which I downloaded here from GEnie. I think that is the latest rev available here. Chris ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 101 Thu Jul 15, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:23 EDT Chris, Actually, GEM-View is up to v2.31. All versions starting with 2.30 are 14-day demos for unregistered users. If you're not able to complete the registration during installation, apparently it quits after 14 days. I guess if you wanted to cheat this method you could always reinstall it every 14 days, but it's kind of a pain to install (in fact, impossible for users without a hard drive, from what I can tell). I'd rather just register, which everyone who uses it -- I don't -- should do, anyway. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 102 Fri Jul 16, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 00:06 EDT Ralf, Other than talking to Word Perfect Corp., I have now idea where to get the info about the file format for WPG graphics. Sorry. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 103 Fri Jul 16, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 00:57 EDT Ken, TAB Books and other publishers have specialty volumes that describe the graphics formats of WP and other software. Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 104 Fri Jul 16, 1993 DMJ [dmj] at 01:20 EDT I've got a book on hand that describes WP graphics. Specifically, it's _Supercharged_Bitmapped_Graphics_ by Steve Rimmer, from Windcrest/McGraw-Hill, list price $34.95. It's got WPG, Targa, 24-bit .BMP, .GIF, .TIF, and 24-bit .PCX in it. Very useful. -dmj ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 105 Fri Jul 16, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:40 EDT Damien, Hot durn, I've got that book, too. (Except that the guy who borrowed it is still holding on to it.) I'd forgotten about it. Now to track him down... Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 106 Fri Jul 16, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:57 EDT Ken, Al, Damien, thanks for your infos about documentation sources for the WP format. I'll check with Dieter to see if it would be possible to include the format as well. BTW, is there anyone who could recommend any more sources, books and descriptions about graphics file formats ? Have a nice weekend. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 107 Fri Jul 16, 1993 DMJ [dmj] at 20:23 EDT Ralf: _Bitmapped_Graphics_, oddly enough also by Steve Rimmer and from the same source as the other book, contains more picture formats. Any good technical bookstore with a large computer section should contain some books on the subject. Formats are really platform-independent, but most of the code is PC-oriented, so the books end up in the PC section. Disgusting, isn't it? -dmj ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 108 Fri Jul 16, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 22:23 EDT Ralf, There's an entire topic devoted to this on one of the other services. I always found it fascinating. (It's on BIX, which is otherwise no competitor for GEnie.) Al ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 109 Sat Jul 17, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 22:13 EDT 2.31 is on a.a I think. If not sang it from ftp.uni-kl.de where I got it from... Heck, someone else can upload it. I'll just do my little part by making people aware of it. :) It's just such a long upload, and I don't let Aladdin run when I'm sleeping anymore. (I already notice one bug, having a upload description of 10 or more lines, that will let Aladdin just sit and hang. At a per/hour rate, I don't like idle hang time.) It's probably a minor bug fix, or else it's be 2.40 or something. ;) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 110 Sun Jul 18, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 18:37 EDT Jonathan, Your bill clock is off when you're entering an upload description, so Aladdin hanging at that point should have no effect on your bill. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 111 Mon Jul 19, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 20:59 EDT Damien & Al, thanks for the titles and book informations. I have a couple of books on the topic as well, but I always love to check out new developments and alternate sources, especially to see whether someone found a new and better way to do things (big things, like speedier decoding and stuff...) *,* \_/ Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 112 Fri Jul 23, 1993 J.ROY18 [Jonathan] at 20:22 EDT Terry, I know it won't cost me anything in that case, but hey, there might be other little bugs or something. A random bit of line noise may hang things up... I don't kow. I just play it safe (and affordable). :) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 113 Wed Jul 28, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 19:58 EDT Hi, I've informed Dieter about the bugs you guys mentioned and he told me he fixed the path problem in the installation program as well as the busy bee cursor problem. He re-designed the installation program to work in a more stre am-lined fashion. If you have any more troubles, please keep me informed. Thanks. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 114 Wed Jul 28, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:40 EDT Thanks for the info, Ralf. Hats off to you for forwarding my report to Dieter, and to him for promptly fixing the bugs. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 115 Thu Jul 29, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:45 EDT Terry, ... *grin*... well, let's see, someone mentioned that GEM-View 2.24 is the latest version available here on GEnie. I think I check it out, and U/L 2.30 if noone else has done it so far. Please note that this version still has the mentioned bugs, but works fine otherwise. Should you come across any more inconsistencies, please report them here. Thanks, Ralf. PS: For all those of you not yet familiar with the new installation procedure: do not enter a registration code/nr and the installation program will automatically decompress and install a demo version of GEM-View. This demo version can be used for 14 days. Should you decide to register, please follow the instructions given in the included documentation. Dieter will then send you a customized key which in turn will enable you to install the full edition. Enjoy! ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 116 Fri Jul 30, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 02:14 EDT Ralf, Yeah, I know the bug is still there in v2.30, because that's the version I installed. ;^) In fact, I believe it's the first version that comes with the installation program. There has been a v2.31 out for some time, but I don't have it. It too clocks in at around 600k. Perhaps you could convince Dieter to lose all the unnecessary files (like all the pictures, for instance), or at least upload them separately. 600k is a bit much, considering the program itself is only a fraction of that. And quite often you're paying to download the same old tired pictures time after time. I can only guess that Dieter is shutting out a lot of potential customers, because many simply won't download a 600k file, especially on a pay service. It also precludes me from hatching it out through AtariNet. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 117 Fri Jul 30, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:36 EDT Terry, thanks for your comments. We've U/L version 2.30 as one complete package, just as Dieter requested it in the enclosed documentation. I'll speak to him about a 'slim' version to be U/L seperately. I think it is a great idea and we should provide both file types the next time around. The mentioned version 2.31 fixes one bug that caused some complications while loading compressed TIFF pictures. Other than that, there is no difference between 2.30 and 2.31. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 118 Sat Aug 07, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 12:56 EDT Importing GEM files: I created a GEM file with the Dataformer Vektor module of Calamus SL. When the graphic was imported into GEM-View, it was incorrect. There are 8 possible settings in this module, not counting size. Is there a file somewhere that explains the effects of the different settings regarding how GEM-View will import GEM files? Are there any known bugs here? I'm trying to find a vector format that Word Less-Than-Perfect 5.1 likes, and the one file setting I've tried was spit out by WP at work. I'm off to try the same graphic with every possibility when this is done posting. Also, any idea when the prg with English docs will be done? The minute they are, I will order it. German docs and the difficulty (mostly difficulty) of getting the shareware $ to Dieter are the things that keep me from doing it. Thanks, Ken S. 35 Miles north of the Arctic Circle. More or less. :-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 119 Sat Aug 07, 1993 JIM.K [Jim~ST Sysop] at 16:19 EDT Ken, The latest U/L of GEMview has English docs, along with a nifty program to install GEMview. 29544 GVIEW232.LZH X STEVE-J 930731 646016 Desc: GEM-View v2.32 (Shareware) I also believe that the shareware donation can be sent to Cybercube in Toronto. Jim Kudron 7Aug93 16:13:58 ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 120 Sat Aug 07, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 21:04 EDT Jim, Thanks for the info. Didn't know that the latest included English docs, but had read that there was a time limit for how long it would work. Cybercube If the shareware fee can be sent to you in Toronto, please contact me via email. Thanks. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 121 Sat Aug 07, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:07 EDT Frozen North, All GEM-View versions >= 2.30 will work for only 14 days if you're not registered. That really should be mentioned in the descriptions, considering it's a download of more than 600k (much of that files you don't need ). __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 122 Sun Aug 08, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 20:15 EDT Terry, actually... since it's shareware it shouldn't make any difference. The user should throw it away if he hasn't paid in 14 days anyway. I'll second your suggestion on not including all the extra files though.:-) Since your getting the examples with the registered version it would make sense to use them as a selling point and just upload GEMview the PRG/ACC. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 123 Sun Aug 08, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 22:13 EDT Joey, That's fine if the user plans on using it right away. But imagine if someone downloads it, extracts it and then doesn't get around to messing with it for a couple weeks? Or they download it and extract it just before going on vacation? And some people don't even know what shareware means, not necessarily through any fault of their own. Bottom line is, they should know ahead of time exactly what they're getting before downloading such a HUGE file. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 124 Mon Aug 09, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 06:31 EDT Terry, OK I'll buy that!:-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 125 Mon Aug 09, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 20:52 EDT Ken S., Terry, thanks for your report and your comments. So far I have never tried to export a GEM file from Calamus and then import it into GEM-View. Therefore I cannot provide you with some intelligent tips right now, but I promise to follow up on this and I let you know what we will find out. If there are any problems or bugs in GEM-View we will do our best to correct them. As for the 14-day limit: First, let me say that I fully support the idea to include a special notice within the file description that clearly describes the usage limit. On the other hand, please le'ts be fair. It took Dieter an enormous amount of time and quite an effort to develop GEM-View into the program most of you have come to like and trust so much. What you get when you download GEM-View is a *FULLY* usable version of GEM-View. Not a 'downsized' version, not a crippled version that spares you of some surprises (until after you paid your reg. fee). You can use GEM-View in whatever way you like. For two full weeks. This truly gives you 'try BEFORE you buy'. But please understand that this is NOT a free copy. I think you agree with Dieter that GEM-View is really worth it's shareware fee. What you get immediately by downloading the file is an EVALUATION COPY. Once you decided that you would like to register your own copy of GEM-View, you just have to send your request and payment either to Dieter directly or to Cybercube. You will then get your personal GEM-View release, together with your own key. There is NO need to download anymore files or programs. We have found that the present approach gives everybody a fair chance to experience the look and feel of GEM-View. Should you for some reason feel that we have failed in this regard, please leave me a note or e-mail. Your feedback IS important. We would like to hear your ideas. And please do not hesitate to tell us what you dislike. If you honestly feel that your suggestions could improve GEM-View, why not share these suggestions with us ? Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 126 Mon Aug 09, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:45 EDT Ralf, My problem is not with the 14-day limit. I fully support that. My only objection is in not telling the downloader exactly what they are getting. Mind you, I have not been burned, because I haven't downloaded one of the new versions from GEnie (or elsewhere, for that matter -- I got v2.30 through AtariNet). I'm only thinking of how others might feel if they were to download a 600k file, not knowing it's a 14-day demo, and perhaps not even getting around to looking at it for a couple weeks after extracting it. I think we all agree that a notice in the file description (preferably in ALL CAPS) is a good idea. I just want to make clear that I have NO objections to the 14-day limit itself. Thanks... __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 127 Mon Aug 09, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 23:41 EDT Ralf, I understand Dieter's viewpoint, and have no problems with it. A couple of questions about the copy that is sent after paying the shareware fee. 1. Is this the complete program, or do you have to have some of the files from the huge download? I just did some "number crunching" and I can mail you a disk, pay postage both ways, and still have less money involved than if I download version 2.32. I have to log on to GEnie with long distance phone charges. 2. Does the version you send out after the shareware payment include the english docs? 3. This seems to be a program that is still continuing to be developed, with new and better versions being posted fairly regularly. If I sent the shareware payment now for a personal release copy, what will happen when Dieter is finally done with the commercial version? Do I get a copy of the finished product, some upgrade path for a reasonalble fee, or just have to buy the finished product? 4. Could you post your mailing address for the shareware fee? Should the check be made out to Cybercube, or to Dieter? 5. If mailed to you, do you send out the personal release, or do I have to wait until Dieter gets the check and mails the program from Germany? Guess that will do for now. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 128 Tue Aug 10, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 20:11 EDT Terry, thanks for your support. I am glad you understand the reasons why Dieter made the decision to give everybody a chance to see GEM-View un-limited for 14 days. For the future, we will make sure that all the versions we U/L will have the special notice included in the file description. I do not recall right now who U/L the latest version. We U/L 2.30 maybe a week ago, but I do not know what happened with it. The most current U/L seems to be marked 2.32, although I doubt that this really is V2.32 (I heard it's 2.30 inside). Has anybody checked whether it is V2.32 ? Ken S., nice questions, Ken. *,* \_/ OK, let's start at the beginning: 1. When you register, you get the complete package. Disk, all files and your own personal key. 2. English documentation is now a standard part of GEM-View. But I must admit that I haven't had the chance to go through all of it, since I know GEM-View pretty well and I've started back then with the german docs. =-> 3. Dieter has plans for some major updates and this totally redesigned version will only be available as a commercial package. However, all registered users will be offered a very attractive upgrade path so that you'll be able to preserve your investment. Remember, you as a user play an important role in this whole process and neither Dieter nor we do tend to forget the people whose support helped to continue the development of this excellent package. 4. Our mailing address is: Cybercube Research Ltd., 126 Grenadier Cr. Thornhill, Ontario, L4J 7V7, Canada. Make cheques payable to either Dieter Fiebelkorn or Cybercube. Shareware fee: $20 + $3 to cover bank charges. 5. You will receive your personal copy of GEM-View directly from Dieter. We notify Dieter directly as soon as we receive any registration request. Dieter will then send your copy ASAP. All commercial versions will be available directly. So, I hope this answers your questions. Should I have made some blunt errors, missed something vital or just talked your head off, please let me know and I'll do my best to correct it. OK ? Take care and enjoy the wonderful world of graphics... and GEM-View. =-> Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 129 Tue Aug 10, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 22:59 EDT Ralf, Thanks for answering my questions. I'll send a shareware check to you in tomorrow's mail. I would guess 10 days or so for it to get to you. I would appreciate it if you would email or post when you get it. Canada Post sat on a package I sent to K.BROOKS1 in Calgary for almost 2 months before they told him to come pick it up. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 130 Wed Aug 11, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:05 EDT Ken S. we sure will give you notice as soon as we are in receipt of the payment. On behalf of Dieter, let me thank you for your support. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 131 Thu Aug 12, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 00:10 EDT Ralf, The check is in the mail. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 132 Thu Aug 12, 1993 R.VOORNEVELD [BOB] at 18:02 EDT Ralf, Just downloaded latest GEM-View and it is V2.32 Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 133 Thu Aug 12, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:32 EDT Bob, thanks for the info. Which proves once more that you should not believe everything they try to tell you. *,* \_/ Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 134 Tue Aug 17, 1993 B.BEAUCHEA [Bob Beauchea] at 21:35 EDT How do I register my copy of Gemview? Where do I send a check and how much? Thanks, Bob Beauchea ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 135 Tue Aug 17, 1993 POTECHIN [Nathan @ DMC] at 21:51 EDT Bob ... If you read messages 125-128 here, the payment is fully explained. I think message #128 contained the exact info. At the REP prompt, simply type 125-128 to read those specific messages. Nathan ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 136 Wed Aug 18, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 19:49 EDT Thanks Nathan for helping out. I think it would be nice to release a file that contains all the particulars in detail. This file could then be freely distributed and U/Led onto the nets and BBSs and would help to make the GEM-View registration much easier. OK, we are already discussing the registration, so here are some more good news and congratiolations. First I would like to say thanks and congrats to two of our regulars here that just sent in their registration: Bob Voorneveld and Ken Springer. Thanks for your support guys. Enjoy your copy. It should arrive soon. Ken S., thanks for the nice letter you sent. It is always a pleasure to learn something interesting about our users and customers. I have to admit that I at first took your '35 miles north of the Artic Circle' more like a humorous remark.... what a surprise as we got your letter. *,* \_/ Hope the wheather up there in Alaska is as good as ours (or better, since it's getting rather humid and sticky around here). Enjoy the summer and I hope you get your personal copy as soon as possible. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 137 Wed Aug 18, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 22:15 EDT Ralf, Glad you enjoyed the info. Nathan thinks I live at the North Pole! Little does he suspect that North Pole, Alaska is about 190 miles southeast of Bettles! Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 138 Thu Aug 19, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 23:42 EDT Ken S., -giggle-. Yep, have to admit that I learn something new and exciting everyday. Should I ever have the chance to visit the North Pole, I sure will come around to check out Beetles. +.+ \_/ Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 139 Thu Aug 19, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 23:46 EDT General announcement: Dieter has just released GEM-View 2.4x. We will start U/L GEM-View 2.4x onto GEnie. Please note that we have not integrated all GEM-View files into one large archive. Rather you must download several files (all have been clearly marked) in order to get the full version. If you already have the pictures and utilities that come with GEM-View, please check the file descriptions. However, a wide range of files has been updated and we would recommend to download all of them to ensure the integrity of the data and to make sure you always have the latest releases. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 140 Sat Aug 21, 1993 R.VOORNEVELD [BOB] at 13:10 EDT Ralf, Just downloaded GEM-View 2.40. The new rotation feature and the Brite feature are nice additions. :>) I think I found a problem with the Full screen feature in the Global function. It now bombs and goes back to the desktop when I try to enlarge or decrease the picture size using this feature. It worked fine in the previous 2.3X and below. Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 141 Sat Aug 21, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 21:35 EDT Ralf, Thanks to you and Dieter for splitting up GEM-View 2.40 into separate archives! __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 142 Mon Aug 23, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 19:32 EDT Bob, thanks for the report. We'll check this one and I am going to ask Dieter if he made some changes to this particular function. Dieter just told me that your personal copy of GEM-View is on it's way. He asked me to extend his thanks. Enjoy! Ken S., Dieter just mailed your personal, registered copy of GEM-View. Hope you like it. Terry, glad you appreciate all the work. *,< \_/ Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 143 Mon Aug 23, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 22:23 EDT Ralf, Thanks for the info. :-) Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 144 Wed Aug 25, 1993 ATARIAUSTRIA [J.Widi] at 09:19 EDT Ralf, I welcome the upload of Gem-View 2.40. I've read the press release to see what new features have been added. The press release - as well as the file descriptions - fails to mention one point that is of extreme interest to registered Gem-View users. That is, if You are already a registered user of Gem-View 2.30 or greater, You can download the demo version from GEnie and then use Your personal key to turn it into a fully functional registered version. You will find this out from the README files when You download the install program but I find it worth to be mentioned separately because it's such a convenient way to update. Another thing is that GEMVIEW.PAX contains both English and German documentation about Version 2.32. I just read that TOOLS.PAX contains the English documentation to V.2.40. Does anybody know if the German V.2.40 docs are also included there? Maybe the next update could contain only the current documentation. And finally, for all that want to write to Dieter: please note that all zip codes in Germany have changed. The correct zip code should be: 45768 Marl (Germany) Maybe someone can point this out to Dieter, because the 'About' dialog still shows the old address ;-) -Johannes ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 145 Fri Aug 27, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 20:53 EDT Johannes, funny, I thought I already answered your questions. But somehow I got disconnected from the system while doing it, and now the message isn't here at all. OK, let's do it again. I agree that there are a number of features that we missed to mention in the PR and the file descriptions. But do not worry, we're already working on a follow-up. You are right about the neat 're-registering' feature. If you are already a registered GEM-View user (2.30 or higher), then all you have to do to update your personal copy of GEM-View is this: Simply download the new versions of the GEM-View files and use your personal key that you received when registering GEM-View to unlock the new update. You will the have a complete, new and fully registered copy of the latest GEM-View version. Enjoy! About the contents and scope of the uploaded or included files: As I indicated before, we are already discussing various options with Dieter. But for the time being, we are bound to U/L the files unmodified as we have received them from the author. We will however concider your suggestions and we will keep you updated on the decisions regarding these issues. Thanks also for reminding us about the German ZIP code change: the number of files and places of informations that have to be updated and changed with each revision may cause some omissions like this. But we will make sure to update the address information ASAP. *,* \_/ Bob, you reported a bug in the zoom/shrink function when in full-screen mode. Thanks for finding this one. It has been fixed and we will include a special notice regarding this one in the coming update. Further I would also like to thank Jim Kudron, Eric Jensen and Rob W. Beauchea, to name a few, for registering GEM-View 2.4x All those of you that sent in their registration while 2.4x became available will automatically receive the most current version. OK, let's wrap it up for today. Have a nice weekend, Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 146 Sat Aug 28, 1993 JIM.K [Jim~ST Sysop] at 21:28 EDT Ralf, I can hardly wait for the registered version. In fact, I may need a new keyboard. It seems that this one is getting quite wet from the drool. Jim Kudron 28Aug93 19:29:42 ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 147 Wed Sep 01, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 19:29 EDT Jim, Dieter just informed me that your own personal copy of GEM-View is on it's way. Enjoy! Richard, thank you for registering as well. We will discuss your ideas and interesting suggestions with Dieter. Many of the proposed features will find their way into the GEM-View. At this point, I would like to invite all GEM-View users, registered or just occasional, to forward their ideas on how this versatile tool could be improved to better suit your needs. Any suggestions are welcome, and should you have encountered a bug in one of the current versions, please let us know as well. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 148 Thu Sep 02, 1993 R.VOORNEVELD [BOB] at 19:17 EDT I just got my registered copy of Gem-View yesterday. Ralf, thank Dieter for such speedy service. :>) BTW My version is 2.44 One thing I would like to see in Gem-View is for it to read .CVG files Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 149 Thu Sep 02, 1993 ST.LOU [Lou] at 21:51 EDT Ralf, can you handle VISA registrations in email? ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 150 Fri Sep 03, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 05:35 EDT Bob, I'll second .CVGs! Plus have the ability to save them as a Raster file such as GIF or something. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 151 Fri Sep 03, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 19:46 EDT Bob, congratulations on your new version! ^.^ \_/ Thanks also for your suggestion regarding the CVG files. There is a very good chance that this will appear in a future release and I will ask DMC for asssistance should Dieter require additional informations. *,* \_/ Many developers and vendors have already contributed to GEM-View by supplying details about proprietory formats and handling procedures. This cooperation is greatly appreciated and I think it is for the benefit of all, the users and the vendors. Lou, so far we accept cheques or money orders. But as soon as we will handle the complete registration process from Toronto, we will definetely look into the possibility of offering registration via credit card payments. Watch for the upcoming press release announcing the new registration, features and updates. *,< \_/ Joey, GEM-View already offers a way to convert certain vector graphics into RASTER images. However, this has not yet been fully tested (with all the different options and modes), so I would suggest you check each specific format conversion you are interested in. We would certainly be interested in your findings... *,* \_/ Ralf. PS: Have a nice weekend, guys! ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 152 Sat Sep 04, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 05:37 EDT Ralf, Soon as he adds CVG to the list, I'll be test them all!:-) I just want to get from CVG to any Raster format should the need arise. I am going to send my payment! I know I keep saying I am but I mean it this time. 3 Day weekend, I'm going to get caught up! ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 153 Sat Sep 04, 1993 ST.LOU [Lou] at 10:19 EDT Ralf, I will mail a check today. What is the US and CDN price. Please repeat the mailing address. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 154 Sat Sep 04, 1993 JIM.K [Jim~ST Sysop] at 14:32 EDT Ralf, Thanks. Now to bug the mailman.. BTW, What's the word on the commercial version (features, price,etc) Jim Kudron 4Sep93 13:23:04 ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 155 Sat Sep 04, 1993 R.VOORNEVELD [BOB] at 16:11 EDT Ralf, Dieter is amazing... It's only a few days since I got my registered copy and today I received a new update fixing the Full screen bug I reported just a short time ago. :>) Thank Dieter for me. Joey, Lou ... You'll be glad you registered. Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 156 Mon Sep 06, 1993 ATARIAUSTRIA [J.Widi] at 06:33 EDT Ralf, there is one thing I'd like to be changed in Gem-View. The text-view feature comes in really handy and I use it frequently to have a quick look at configuration files, ASCII files and the like. I also use it quite often to have a look at logfiles from a session with GEnie or another BBS. Now sometimes when I get a bad phone line the logfiles contain garbled characters. Gem-View than decides that this is no ASCII text and displays the file as a hexdump. The menu in the display window offers the possibility to change to ASCII text but when I click on it Gem-View tells me 'This is a plain hexdump file'. Sometimes when I try to load a textfile with 'garbled' characters Gem-View asks:'Cannot identify file! Break/ASCII/hexdump?' When I choose ASCII I get the message 'Line too long' and the file is displayed as a hexdump. I think in both cases choosing ASCII should really force Gem-View into ASCII mode, regardless of file contents. Gem-View could take care of long lines by wrapping them to maximum legal length (255 I suppose). Maybe it could be configured to display non-ASCII characters as-is or replacing them with dots, asterisks, question marks or whatever is appropriate. This would make the text- viewing feature much more useful. -Johannes ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 157 Tue Sep 07, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 19:01 EDT Joey, I bet you would. *,* \_/ OK, I'll let Dieter know about it. =) Lou, the price for the new versions (>2.40) is U.S. $30 or Cdn $42 (Canadian price already includes GST and PST). There is NO need to send in any disks or SAEs. Our mailing address is: Cybercube Research Limited 126 Grenadier Crescent Thornhill, Ontario, L4J 7V7 Canada Please note: once you received your personal key, you simply need to download any newly released update, run the installer program, type in your personal key to upgrade your registered copy ! There are no additional charges or fees! If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Simply send e-mail to CYBERCUBE. Note: If you are registering, please mark your payment CLEARLY! Jim, sorry, I wont talk about the commercial version until we have something ready for release. Just look at the present rate of additions and all the new features and I am sure, you will be pleased with the planned commercial version. *,* \_/ Bob, glad you received your new version. Yep, Dieter found that rather silly bug quite fast. Enjoy! Johannes, I'll pass along your suggestions about the ASCII mode. I see your point and I am sure we can work out something that works a bit more comfortable. But please keep in mind that GEM-View has been designed to be a image viewer and only switches to ASCII if it cannot identify the file... Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 158 Tue Sep 07, 1993 ST.LOU [Lou] at 21:30 EDT Thanks, Ralf. Everything is clearer now. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 159 Tue Sep 07, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 22:00 EDT Ralf, My GEM-View disk arrived today. Haven't tried installing it yet, but figure all will go smoothly. Tell Dieter thanks, and thanks to you also. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 160 Wed Sep 08, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:38 EDT Lou, if you need anything else, just let me know. Ken S., congratulations Ken... and enjoy GEM-View! Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 161 Thu Sep 09, 1993 D.BOWMAN9 [>>dave b<<] at 01:28 EDT Ralf, Is there anyway get a display of greater than the normal 4 and 16 for sT med and st low? Sort of like Speed of light gif viewer and dmj's spc viewer. Could you perhaps ask the programmer to add that feature--that would make it a lot nicer for us old ST users. later, dave B ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 162 Thu Sep 09, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] at 06:17 EDT I've just d/l the five files for GEM-View. So far I can't figure out anything I've got. Lot's of German. When you get this thing registered do you get English help files. I don't read German. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 163 Thu Sep 09, 1993 JIM.K [Jim~ST Sysop] at 13:26 EDT Ralf, I received my envelope from Germany yesterday. Boy, that was fast! Speaking of fast, the registered version is quite a bit faster than the demos. Thank you very much, and let Dieter to keep up the good work. Jim Kudron 8Sep93 18:23:52 ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 164 Thu Sep 09, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] at 18:07 EDT I finaly got the chance to read all the english docs on the files I downloaded. After doing so I I noticed I was missing all the files that should have been de-compressed from GEMVIEW.PAX No wonder nothing is working. I started converting the PAX files once more while and when I start the INSTALL.APP I get the registration request and since I've never used GEMVIEW I just type return. Then when it looks at the first file it gives me a NICHT GENUG SPEICHER alert box. I then changed the name of INSTALL.APP to INSTALLA.APP as it is suggested to do if the installation doesn't work properly. Everything is working fine now. Sorry about my earlier complaint. :- ) P.S. a thought. The info box says that the shareware fee is 26.US how does this come out to $42 canadian if I register via Cybercube? ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 165 Thu Sep 09, 1993 R.VOORNEVELD [BOB] at 18:44 EDT See Flat If you've downloaded Gem-View 2.40 or greater there is english doc's in the GEMVIEW folder. Click on DOCUMENT folder and then ENGLISH.DOC folder. To get them un-compacted just run the GVW_INST.APP and just hit return when it asks for registration number, name etc. I hope this helps Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 166 Thu Sep 09, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 19:19 EDT Greetings, before we start to discuss all the new messages, I would like to announce a couple of changes: Effectively immediately, Cybercube Research Limited will handle all GEM-View Registration related issues directly from Toronto. We have entered a new licensing agreement with Dieter Fiebelkorn and we have obtained the right to send you your personal registered copies of GEM-View. This will speed up the registration process and make things a little easier for all. If you would like to take advantage of the new registration options, you just have to send your request and your registration fee to: Cybercube Research Ltd. 126 Grenadier Cr. Thornhill, ONT, L4J 7V7 Canada. Please mark your payment CLEARLY and make your cheque or money order payable to Cybercube. If you prefer to register through Dieter in Germany, please follow the instructions in the GEM-View documentation. Registration fee for GEM-View 2.4x is U.S. $30 or Cdn $42 (includes all applicable taxes). Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Simply send e-mail to CYBERCUBE, or leave a post in this topic. Thank you! OK, here are the answers to your posts: Dave B., More than 4 or 16 colors on a regular ST: We've discussed this a couple of times, Dave. But you have to understand that GEM-View is a GEM based program. It is designed to work on any Atari compatible machine, beginning from the ST up to the Falcon. Dieter has taken great care to adhere to all the GEM guidelines and programming rules, to make his program as flexible and verstile as possible. Adopting the program to utilize some specific features on one machine will ultimately result in total incompatibility on other systems. GEM-View offers a wide variety of dithering modes to compensate for those shortcomings in certain video modes. These features have been constantly improved to provide a better display quality. We will concider your suggestion and maybe if there is enough response, there might also be a specialized version that can display more colors on the regular machines. Please note that this is just speculative, but if you would like to see such a product, drum up some support, get people interested and we will try to do our best to cater to your needs. *,* \_/ J.BRENNER1, glad you found the ENGLISH documentation. The error message you mentioned says: 'NOT ENOUGH MEMORY'. Sorry that this slipped through, I will notify Dieter that he still has some GERMAN error messages in the installation program. +.+ \_/ When you try to install GEM-View and you repeatedly get that message, try to remove all unnecessary *.ACC files and AUTO folder programs (Just as long as you install GEM-View). Afterwards you should be able to run GEM-View as long as you have approx. 400 KB of free RAM (depends largely on the type of images you want to display!). Please let me know if your installation still fails after those mentioned changes! Jim, congratulations to your registered copy! I am glad you liked the service. *,* \_/ I will forward your thanks to Dieter. Bob, thanks for helping out. Seems I should have read the messages till the end... *,< \_/ OK guys, what a message this has become. Hope you don't mind me talking that lot. If you prefer small, tiny, little messages... just let me know! Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 167 Thu Sep 09, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] at 20:17 EDT Ralf, hi, actually I seriously doubt that I ran out of memory as I have a four meg system. I have a bunch of resident applications but that still leaves me 2.5 meg of free ram. Regardless, as I've said before when I changed the name of INSTALL.APP to INSTALLA.APP everything workied fine. I'd still like to know why you are stating the price for registration to be 30$ US when on the program itself it is said to be 26$ US. Let us say you charge 4$ US to cover your manipulation fees. I find that a 40% exchange rate is quite high. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 168 Fri Sep 10, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:16 EDT J.BRENNER1, GEM-View registration fee $26 fee to cover bank charges $3 Cybercube handling fee $1 We do not think that this is either too much nor unjustified. Please consider your costs when you follow the international registration option, directly with Dieter. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 169 Fri Sep 10, 1993 D.BOWMAN9 [>>dave b<<] at 21:52 EDT hello there again, Ralf, Thanks for the speedy reply...sort of what I expected thou. the program is outstanding and I can see your points... I was just hopin' a little. could you maybe talk him into using a modular app--from within the all purpose Gem-View have it exit gemview and call the viewer app and pass along the proper info to display it in the extended format then recall gemview when it exits the viewer just a thought later, dave b ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 170 Fri Sep 10, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] at 23:02 EDT Ralf, I think it's totaly justified that you charge $4.00 handling fee. It could even be five or six if you so wished. My problem is with the difference between $30 US and $42 Cdn. Thats' 40 percent exchange rate when banks are charging 27. I'm not questioning your integrity Ralf. Just want to know what I pay for. Now if you tell me that I can get the program in a week instead of in two months that is more than worth the extra 4 or 5 dollars. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 171 Sat Sep 11, 1993 ST.LOU [Lou] at 11:39 EDT John, don't forget that CyberCube is in Canada which means your package won't have to 'age' at Customs Canada :-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 172 Sat Sep 11, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 16:15 EDT J.BRENNER1, hi again. *,* \_/ Well, let me show you how the Canadian price has been calculated: GEM-View Shareware fee Cdn $35.65 Taxes, handling fee Cdn $5.35 shipping charges Cdn $1.00 ------------ Cdn $42.00 We see the GEM-View registration service as just that: a service. A service that many have already taken advantage of. Although not instantly rewarding, customers appreciate the kind of dedication and commitment that we have shown and certainly will continue to show in the future. Therefore we value this service more for its long term effects rather than a 'quick way to make money'. I hope this will help you and others to better understand the GEM-View pricing structure. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the current services offered, please do not hesitate to forward any such ideas to CYBERCUBE. Lou, quite right. Since we now handle things directly from Toronto, we hope to significantly improve the response times. And I would also like to point out that for about 99% of the time, the U.S. and Canadian Postal Services are better than their reputation. So far we are very pleased with the results and delivery times we have experienced, even when sending goods across the 'border'. GEM-View 2.46: We've just uploaded the latest version of GEM-View last night. You will be able to D/L these files from library 28 as soon as it will be cleared by the SysOps. Please note that there is also a new GEM-View related press release containing more useful informations. Have a nice weekend. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 173 Sat Sep 11, 1993 J.BRENNER1 [See Flat] at 17:28 EDT Lou, :-) Ralf, I have put asside Gem-View for now as I dont' find it very useful to me on my existing system. I will register as soon as I get a TC card. (which should be quite soon) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 174 Sun Sep 12, 1993 R.VOORNEVELD [BOB] at 13:01 EDT Hi Ralf, I just downloaded GEM-View 2.46 and found that it will not open my icon pictures (*.GVW format) that where created with GEM-View 2.45 I get a message that reads NOT ENOUGH MEMORY. The same pictures loaded with 2.46 and then iconified into *.GVW format do work properly however. I just thought that I'd pass on this info Bob ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 175 Mon Sep 13, 1993 ATARIAUSTRIA [J.Widi] at 02:19 EDT Ralf, True, GEM-View started it's life as a picture viewer but I think it is versatile enough to grow into a general purpose file viewer utility. I think it has to, especially when it is going to be a commercial program. There is already competition and View II (from DMJ/It's all relative) sounds quite interesting with the ability to also display animations, sounds and archive contents. And their text viewer module does search and print text as well. The main disadvantage is that the program has no picture conversion ability. -Johannes ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 176 Mon Sep 13, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 20:25 EDT J.BRENNER1, whenever you are ready. Your support is surely welcome! Bob, oops, seems that we just have a brand new one. Well, I'll check it and if necessary will let Dieter know about it. Thanks for unearthing this one! *,< \_/ Johannes, surely there are many features that could be added to GEM-View. A commercial version will have it's special merits too. It has to, since it will be offered in addition to the SHAREWARE versions. I'll pass along your suggestions. As for animations and sound, I think it would be best to develop an independent module, which would then communicate via Dieter's XACC2 protocol with GEM-View. So you could have the best of both worlds, and when not needed, the animation module would not occupy extra memory. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 177 Mon Sep 20, 1993 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 10:55 EDT Ralf, I just had a quick question about a prg mentioned in the GEM-View archives, MultiDia, which I presume is the program Multi Dialog that I hear is available in the UK. It's supposed to shoehorn dialogs and alerts into a GEM window and sounds like a great thing with multitasking coming of age on the ST. I noticed that the GEM-View archives always contain a small text file describing such a prg, but I've never seen the executable. Was one or the other omitted or included by mistake? Just curious. Thanks! - Mel ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 178 Mon Sep 20, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:40 EDT Mel, MultiDia: Yes, you are right, it is Multi Dialog. But it is not a part of the GEM-View package. We are still considering to include a demo version of it with GEM-View, since it really helps when you are running a multi-tasking system. So, it's not an error, or omission, but I'll check if we can somehow make it available for the NA Atari user's as well. Sorry, I didn't realize that this prog is not (yet) available here. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 179 Mon Sep 20, 1993 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 19:04 EDT Ralf, Oh, o.k.. Thanks. From the description of it in the September ST Review (UK), I thought it was pd or freeware, but after looking at the screenshots some more, and considering that it's being distributed by a pd house, I guess it might be shareware. Sounds like a great program. Is Multi Dialog something Dieter coded, or the work of a friend? And appreciate any demo that could be u/l'd. Thanks! - Mel ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 180 Tue Sep 21, 1993 M.POCHE [Mick] at 01:33 EDT Mel - I have a copy of Multi Dialog, version 1.00, that I believe I got from the library here, or possibly off of Delphi. It is Shareware (the author asks US residents to send $10 to Greenpeace), and I can send it on up here if it's not already. I checked it out on MTOS, and it does make most things that use dialogs a bit easier and nicer, although it does add a 'move bar' to the dialogs, which can make some full-dialog programs drop a bit off the bottom of the screen. Might be different in higher-than-ST resolutions. - Mick ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 181 Tue Sep 21, 1993 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 02:03 EDT Mick, Yes, send it up. I've scoured the file library, but can't find any trace of Multi Dialog. If it's nested in some other archive, someone please point the way, or u/l the latest. Thanks! - Mel ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 182 Tue Sep 21, 1993 M.POCHE [Mick] at 03:30 EDT Mel - Multi Dialog 1.00 is now awaiting SysOp approval. It should be file #30121, filename M_DIAL10.ZIP. Hope you find it helpful! - Mick ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 183 Tue Sep 21, 1993 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL] at 11:17 EDT Mick, Thanks a jillion! - Mel ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 184 Tue Sep 21, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:31 EDT Mick. thanks for U/L the MultiDia demo. I'll check with Dieter to see if he knows a bit more about the most current versions. Mel, MultiDia is not one of Dieter's programs. As I said, I'll get some more info on it for you. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 185 Wed Sep 22, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 05:04 EDT Ralf, Suggest to Dieter that he add an option to change the background in full screen view. I would like to have a solid black background. It would also be nice to change images using the keyboard while in full screen. Also suggest he he send me hate mail until I actually register.:-) Actually, I've just been waiting to register when I send in my next order! ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 186 Wed Sep 22, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:45 EDT Joey, although I do not remember right now since what version exactly you can do this, but GEM-View DOES allow you to change the background in FULL screen mode AND within the windows (should the image be smaller than the window you opened or if you shrunk the picture). In order to change the background, have a look at the GEM-View menu bar. You will find several boxes (a clear one, a grey one and a black one) in the EXTRAS menu. Simply click inside the box you would like to use as a background... and switch to full screen mode! Voila, your pictures may look even better than before! I will relay your other suggestions to Dieter. We have adopted a scheme of collecting all the ideas and suggestions from the users and discussing them based on the number of requests, implementation details and feasibility. So, keep those ideas coming... *,* \_/ Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 187 Thu Sep 23, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 04:35 EDT Thanks Ralf, I do have the version with the little box's... so thats what they do!:-) I'm off to work on that manual! ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 188 Thu Sep 23, 1993 R.VOORNEVELD [BOB] at 18:58 EDT Joey, You can also use the F1, F2 & F3 keys to change the picture background. F1= Clear F2= Grey F3= Black ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 189 Thu Sep 23, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 23:57 EDT Bob, thanks for the tip. Now I got a chance to learn something too. *grin* Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 190 Fri Sep 24, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 05:10 EDT Both you guys are right, it actually works!:-) It's close to what I wanted, there's still a white border. It needs to turn the 0 color black so the border turns black as well. The reason I'm suggesting this is the white is distracting when your trying to adjust the color values and brightness. I prefer a solid black background. Ralf, I thought of a format I would like to see added. The Seurat IMG format. If you need the actual format specs I have them. It works just like normal IMG except it uses the register color palette instead of VDI color palette and the image is stored 1 complete bit-plane at a time. They actually load into GEMview but they appear as four stacked black and white images. GEMview doesn't assemble them correctly. In other words it wouldn't take much to fix it.:-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 191 Fri Sep 24, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:31 EDT Joey, I am a bit confused about what you said in respect to the white border. Since you can select three different background styles (clear, grey and black) there should always be the perfect color match be available. If you suspect that there might be a color problem, use the GEM-View COLORS setting and set it to 240 (256-16... to really preserve the system colors 0-15) and then save this new configuration. Seurat IMG files: OK, I will look into that as well. But believe me, the *.IMG handling with all it's substandards has become rather complex in the meantime. Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 192 Sat Sep 25, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 07:18 EDT Ralf, The background gets set to Black but the monitors non resolution area stays white. I haven't checked but I can probably just swap my colors on my desktop. Now 0 is White and 1 is Black. I'm assuming GEMview fills the screen with color 1 for the background so color 0 leaves the unused border white. Does that make sense?:-) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 193 Sat Sep 25, 1993 R.VOORNEVELD [BOB] at 13:05 EDT Joey, Buy saying "non resolution area of the monitor" do you mean the outter edges of the screen ? If you do, my non resolution area is always black not white. When I use the black fill the whole screen is black except where the picture is of coarse. :>) ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 194 Sat Sep 25, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 14:35 EDT Joey, Yes, I'm almost certain it has to do with the way your palette is set up. If you swap the two primary colors (giving you white on black), I'll bet you'll get a completely black background, including borders. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 195 Sun Sep 26, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 01:28 EDT Yeap, swapping my colors work but then all my windows are White text on Black backgrounds.:-) What would be nice is Atari's Color CPX would allow you to save different palettes! Is there away to save a default palette in GEMview? Think I'll go check that out... ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 196 Sun Sep 26, 1993 OUTRIDER [Terry] at 12:46 EDT Joey, If you have Warp 9, it would be a simple matter to set up a background picture for GEM-View that has the colors you want. Or, you can use CFJ's shareware Desk Switch to load the settings of any *.INF, so that you can change your colors prior to loading GEM-View. What's especially nice about Desk Switch is that it takes up NO memory. __ /erry .\\ay ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 197 Sun Sep 26, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 13:24 EDT Ralf, GEM-View 2.46 seems to have some problems reading TIF files created with ImageCopy 2.01 from ST Club. I spent the better part of day futzing with this. If you want more detail, I'll put it on paper and mail it. It would make for a horrendously long post. Ken S. PS- Is there a way to get GEM-View to convert a color TIF to monochrome TIF without dithering? Whatever the compatibility problem is, getting some of the screwed up files converted was a piece of cake, and the results were exactly what I wanted. So far the dithering steps I've tried have not given me what I wanted. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 198 Mon Sep 27, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 18:27 EDT Joey, please clarify: what mode are you trying to use when you get the problem with the white border areas ? Ken, I haven't heard about this particular TIF problem. But there are quite a number of different ways you can save TIFs, and making sure you have a routine that loads them all takes some efforts and time. Are there any source images here on GEnie that produce the same effect ? If so, can you point out at least one image so that we can test this ? Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 199 Mon Sep 27, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 22:18 EDT Ralf, I have no idea whether any of the TIF's on GEnie will load improperly. What I was doing was taking screen shots of the start up screen of Invision Elite 2.0 with Imagecopy 2.01, and some were okay, some were not, some looked okay, but gave a warning message during loading, etc. Hmmm, let me think. I might experiment with creating a file to send you with my screen shots in it. I try not to upload files, because a) it is slooooow, and b) I login via long distance phone. Let me know if you want me to pursue this uploading to you. Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 200 Tue Sep 28, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 03:59 EDT Just send a little tiny TIF file Ken. It shouldn't take a very big Image to find the problem if you can create one. Ralf, Let me experiment some I'm not sure which res it was... I believe it was TT Medium. I tried it in True Color last night and it worked perfect! ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 201 Tue Sep 28, 1993 CYBERCUBE [Ralf] at 20:32 EDT Ken, check if the error still persists if you save a small portion of a TIF file (a few KB is probably enough!) Most of the time errors can be located very quickly if we have the images which caused the problem in the first place. You can also just U/L that test file into the GEnie library and we'll get it from there! Joey, I would have to check this, but I do not think that there is a way to control the white border in TT Mid other than setting color 0 to a new value. Remember, GEM-View is a GEM program and does not fiddle around with any of the registers. Just the plain OS calls. +.+ \_/ Ralf. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 202 Tue Sep 28, 1993 K.SPRINGER1 [FROZEN NORTH] at 23:52 EDT Ralf and Joey, I'll create something in the next few days, and email to you. Any desires on the archiving method? Ken S. ------------ Category 7, Topic 33 Message 203 Wed Sep 29, 1993 REALM [Joey] at 03:06 EDT Ken, I like LZH.:-) Ralf, Dah... it dawned on me last night if your viewing a paletted image the colors are changed to match. It does stay black if the image doesn't use all the colors. My fault, Dieter did good.:-) ------------