2004.04.22 22:23 "Re: [Tiff] Large TIFF files", by Bob Friesenhahn

I agree with you on this. While there there may be a desire to "fix" and "improve" 64-bit TIFF over 32-bit TIFF, if the changes are not restricted to the minimum required to support large file sizes, then the updates to existing TIFF readers and writers will not be trivial, and it becomes likely that 64-bit TIFF will fail. If reading/writing 64-bit TIFF with existing source code is as trivial as updating some typedefs, and ensuring that calculations don't overflow, then there is a much higher probability that the new format will be generally accepted.

Or we can start with LibTIFF and create a new library for the new format. It doesn't have to be one library.

Yes, there is some desire to fix old problems with TIFF in addition to extending the file length.

Right. A libtiff64 could be created from libtiff. If the TIFF fixes can be hidden within libtiff64 then there shouldn't need to be much change in dependent applications. This approach at least assures that open source applications, and proprietary applications which use libtiff, can quickly incorporate TIFF64 support.

This doesn't help software which doesn't already use libtiff though.

If libtiff can be updated to support both classic TIFF and TIFF64 in the same library, then dependent applications will gain TIFF64 support for almost "free".

Bob

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