2007.07.03 18:37 "[Tiff] BigTIFF extension?", by Phil Harvey

2007.07.05 16:51 "Re: [Tiff] BigTIFF extension", by Andrew Brooks

On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:54:46 +0100, Toby Thain <toby@smartgames.ca> wrote:

> As we keep saying to no effect - BigTIFF is somewhat different > because it is a total incompatibility.

Would it have made any difference if the BigTIFF spec had left the "version" number at 42, and the file contained one tag with all BigTIFF information inside that tag? Then old software would say "this is a TIFF file but I can't read it" rather than "this is not a TIFF file".

That's one way of making a BigTIFF file look like a TIFF file for compatibility, but the only benefit is a slightly better error message. And that assumes all software has sensible error messages for every eventuality which, as we all know, is never the case!

Andrew