2006.04.04 03:41 "Re: [Tiff] WORDS_BIGENDIAN makes libtiff platform dependent", by Bob Friesenhahn

Even BigTIFF support doesn't imply any need for compile time endian dependent (nor 64 bit dependent) code.

You could write BigTIFF support in such a way that it will run on a 32 bit machine, and doesn't even need compiler support for long long. You may not want to this of course.

Under POSIX systems a 64-bit type is required in order to support file offsets. Win32 is really ugly for large files. Although NTFS is nice and supports huge files, the Win32 API is broken for huge files except for the special 64-bit POSIX work-alikes (e.g. _lseeki64) since most APIs only handle 32-bit offsets. Even the Win32 APIs which do support large file offsets do so by using two 32-bit values. The POSIX-like APIs are the best fit for large files under Windows.

BTFW, I have been informed that the Borland C++ compiler does not support _lseeki64 under Windows even though it has been present since Windows '98. Windows '95 users need not apply.

Bob
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Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer, http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/