2007.07.05 14:39 "Re: [Tiff] Re: Tiff Digest, Vol 38, Issue 12", by Joris Van Damme

Gary,

BigTIFF is TIFF.

No it's not :-) It's not in the TIFF specification

http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/tiff/TIFF6.pdf

Awkward snipping here. That makes it appear that that was my quote, which it wasn't.

Indeed. Sorry 'bout that. I figured people are getting tired of this lengthy thread, so I tried and combine my answer to two people to save one message, but I should have done with more carefull attribution.

There is a difference between changes which extend or revise a file format and those which diverge from its fundamental assumptions.

Likely we don't agree about what is rightfully called 'fundamental assumption'. You feel the file header is fundamental. I feel the functional whole is fundamental (i.e. as detailed before: tag system, specific tags, free combination of encoding properties, multi-page and downsample support in IFD tree structure, extra sample support, different sampleformats, private data through private tags, etc). So you feel there's a break in fundamental assumptions, I feel there is not.

Stick with reality. What do programmers/users know about TIFF, what does it stand for? Any part of that actually changed?

Compatibility with all existing software.

We've seen that argument before. I've replied before (amongst other replies) that the same goes for tiling in TIFF, it was not compatible with all existing software either. So far, nobody contradicted my reply, so let's stop returning to square one in this part of the discussion.

Best regards,

Joris Van Damme
info@awaresystems.be
http://www.awaresystems.be/
Download your free TIFF tag viewer for windows here:
http://www.awaresystems.be/imaging/tiff/astifftagviewer.html