2004.10.01 06:35 "[Tiff] BigTIFF & PDF & tifftools", by Rob van den Tillaart

2004.10.01 06:58 "Re: [Tiff] BigTIFF & PDF & tifftools", by Joris Van Damme

Rob,

Discussion was about tifftools, and if/when they would grow 'big' too.

Would these tools become bigtiff specific or would they handle bigtiff and classic tiff transparantly? Linking them with both lib's could introduce namespace conflicts I guess. Having separate tools for classic and big would give double code bases for every tool implying a serious synchronisation effort.

I feel it should be perfectly possible to have LibTiff handle the classic/big issue transparently. Thus, there should be no 'both libs', like e.g. is the case for LibJpeg when used to support both 8bit and 12bit per sample jpegs, and which indeed causes nothing but pain and duplication.

As far as I know, having LibTiff handle the classic/big issue transparently, is not just possible, but is also the way Frank intends to enhance LibTiff. It will enable to stick with a single copy of the tools and tools code. Tools will not need to grow big, neither will apps, they'll support BigTIFF by default simply by using the newer LibTiff.

Joris Van Damme
info@awaresystems.be
http://www.awaresystems.be
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