Date:  02-Jul-89 16:03 EDT
From:  Jason Harper [76703,4222]
Subj:  Patched IIGif Bitnet Distribution

I have no objections to the patch instructions being posted.  I would
rather not have the patched version posted, as it doesn't work right on a
IIgs.  If it was somehow possible to have both versions available, each
indicating what computers it works on and a pointer to the other version
for other computers, I would have no objection to that.  It would be
possible for me to produce a version that worked right on all machines,
but I held off because an upgrade to the GIF specification was imminent,
which would require changes to ][GIF for full support.  I didn't want
people to download the patched version, only to have to download the new
version shortly thereafter.  This new GIF spec has been very close to
being released, for well over a year now.  Some progress has actually been
made: a draft of the new spec was given to GIF Developers for comments
recently.  It contained some rather disturbing changes: in particular, GIF
is to be redefined from being a 'file format' to being a 'data stream',
with no definition (at least in the draft) of how that data stream would
fit within a file.  I'm not sure just how an offline GIF decoder such as
][GIF is supposed to handle this.  Also, some of the new GIF capabilities
can't possibly be efficiently implemented on a 64K computer, and there will
be no way to identify files (excuse me... 'data streams') using these
capabilities until they have been downloaded, possibly at considerable
expense.  My current feeling is that I don't want people to download a
fixed version now, only to have to throw it away shortly thereafter because
they can no longer trust it to actually work on anything labelled 'GIF'.
I will continue to leave the program in its current state until the new
spec is finally released to the public.  At that time, I will make the
decision to either produce a fully working version, or drop support for the
program completely and request that all public copies be deleted: all I'm
gaining from this program is reputation, which can't be helped by having a
GIF decoder available that can't decode GIF files (excuse me, 'data streams').

        Jason Harper

PS: feel free to repost this message to the net.

------------------ End J Harper Message -------------------------


----------- Patch IIGif to work on IIc with 3.5 drives ---------

       Boot Basic.System

        ] CALL -151

        * BLOAD IIGIF, TSYS, A$2000

        * 2062: 70
        * 2A3F: EA EA EA
        * 2A44: EA EA EA
        * 2A49: EA EA EA
        * 2A50: EA EA EA
        * 2A55: EA EA EA
        * 2A5A: EA EA EA

        * CREATE IIGIF.P, TSYS

        * BSAVE IIGIF.P, TSYS, A$2000, L$306C

--------------------------------------------------------------------

                                        Good Luck!
 _______________________
/                       \_____________________________________________________
|  Ralph Carpenter                                                            \
|  Dept. of Psychology       InterNet: CarpentR%SerVax.Bitnet@MITvma.MIT.EDU  |
|  Florida Atlantic U.       Bitnet: CarpentR@SerVax  Compu$erve: 76067,1625  |
|  at Boca Raton             GEnie: Ralpho   MaBell: (407) 367-2616           |
\_____________________________________________________________________________/