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IDL 5.4 and gifs [message #23239]

Fri, 19 January 2001 13:38

Craig Markwardt
Messages: 1869
Registered: November 1996

Senior Member

I was visiting someone with IDL 5.4 on Linux today. I mentioned the
lack of GIF support, and my friend was surprised. We confirmed that
when we tried to open a GIF, we got an error message. However there
is an idl_gif.so library file, and WRITE_GIF, READ_GIF, etc still
exists as procedures in the standard library.

We tried the simple experiment of replacing the IDL 5.4 idl_gif.so
library and DLM files with the ones from IDL 5.3.

It worked! We were able at least to read old GIFs into IDL with no
problem. I didn't try writing any GIFs however.

Has anybody else tried this and got it to work? For previous
purchasers of IDL, this at least is a good sign. :-)

Craig

--
------------------------------------------------------------ --------------
Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D. EMAIL: craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu
Astrophysics, IDL, Finance, Derivatives | Remove "net" for better response
------------------------------------------------------------ --------------

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Re: HOW [message #23376 is a reply to message #23239]

Wed, 24 January 2001 19:15

Mark Chan
Messages: 24
Registered: November 2000

Junior Member

I am not a lawyer!

Could someone please explain to me what 'replacing the IDL 5.4 IDL_gif.so
library and DLM files with the ones from IDL 5.3' means?

I have never done anything like this before. Will like to learn this more.

I have 5.4 and am using 5.3 because of this gif problem. For the time being
I don't need to use this trick but don't mind knowing more.

Thanks,
Mark Chan

"Craig Markwardt" <craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu> wrote in message
news:ony9w79q8j.fsf@cow.physics.wisc.edu...
>
> I was visiting someone with IDL 5.4 on Linux today. I mentioned the
> lack of GIF support, and my friend was surprised. We confirmed that
> when we tried to open a GIF, we got an error message. However there
> is an idl_gif.so library file, and WRITE_GIF, READ_GIF, etc still
> exists as procedures in the standard library.
>
> We tried the simple experiment of replacing the IDL 5.4 idl_gif.so
> library and DLM files with the ones from IDL 5.3.
>
> It worked! We were able at least to read old GIFs into IDL with no
> problem. I didn't try writing any GIFs however.
>
> Has anybody else tried this and got it to work? For previous
> purchasers of IDL, this at least is a good sign. :-)
>
> Craig
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------
> Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D. EMAIL: craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu
> Astrophysics, IDL, Finance, Derivatives | Remove "net" for better response
> ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------

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Re: IDL 5.4 and gifs [message #23421 is a reply to message #23239]

Mon, 22 January 2001 08:24

R.Bauer
Messages: 1424
Registered: November 1998

Senior Member

Craig Markwardt wrote:
>
> I was visiting someone with IDL 5.4 on Linux today. I mentioned the
> lack of GIF support, and my friend was surprised. We confirmed that
> when we tried to open a GIF, we got an error message. However there
> is an idl_gif.so library file, and WRITE_GIF, READ_GIF, etc still
> exists as procedures in the standard library.
>
> We tried the simple experiment of replacing the IDL 5.4 idl_gif.so
> library and DLM files with the ones from IDL 5.3.

You will get the same result if you add it to your working directory.
And start idl with a routine from that. This makes testing easier.
After reading Ronns book I should have realized that's this will work
but I don't tried.

What's are the licenses saying about this. Of course if you already
have written your own DLM you are allowed to add them to each IDL
Version.
But this is a bit different from mixing two Versions of two commercial
products.

Till now gif is available for past idl5.3 users.
Are there any ideas how much it will costs?

regards
Reimar

--
Reimar Bauer

Institut fuer Stratosphaerische Chemie (ICG-1)
Forschungszentrum Juelich
email: R.Bauer@fz-juelich.de

=============================================
a IDL library at ForschungsZentrum Jï¿½lich
http://www.fz-juelich.de/icg/icg1/idl_icglib/idl_lib_intro.h tml

http://www.fz-juelich.de/zb/text/publikation/juel3786.html

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Re: IDL 5.4 and gifs [message #23438 is a reply to message #23239]

Fri, 26 January 2001 15:36

Richard French
Messages: 173
Registered: December 2000

Senior Member

Here's more.....

Unisys official statement regarding patent use:

http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/Gif/unisys.html

and here is the CompuServe license agreement.

http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Patents/Gif/gif_lic.html

To me, it
sounds as if they would want to charge RSI 1.5% of the
cost of an IDL license EACH YEAR for the use of GIF/LZW
format.

I would imagine that at least some end users would be
willing to pay that cost in order to keep GIF around
for legacy purpose. However, my impression is that
RSI has not yet sorted out with CompuServe exactly how
this agreement would work.

Dick French

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Re: IDL 5.4 and gifs [message #23444 is a reply to message #23239]

Fri, 26 January 2001 14:47

davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996

Senior Member

Todd Clements (mole6e23@hotmail.com) writes:

> IDL is not that
> consistent, thus David's claim to fame that he can make it consistent.

Well, this is *one* of them. But this all happened
after I got married. :-)

Cheers,

David

--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155

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Re: IDL 5.4 and gifs [message #23445 is a reply to message #23239]

Fri, 26 January 2001 14:31

Todd Clements
Messages: 23
Registered: January 2001

Junior Member

"Richard G. French" <rfrench@wellesley.edu> wrote:

> Here is the authoritative answer from the IDL Product Manager at RSINC.
> (It appears to me that the best short-term solution is for some clever
> soul with time on their hands to come up with an interface to the
> library of GIF routines in http://www.imagemagick.org/
> but that is more than I can tackle at the moment.) - Dick

Or you can do it to the old routines in ghostscript. They don't
currently support GIF due to the copyright issue, but they do
specifically say that you can download the old GIF routines and they
work with the current ghostscript.

Then, just print a .ps file, and use the IDL commands below (which are
easily put into a procedure). I show it for PNG because I don't have the
GIF libraries installed so I can't figure out the device name, but the
device name is easy to figure out...just launch ghostscript with "-h" It
will list all the devices.

;;-------------- for UNIX... easily modified for windows
;;-------------- probably have to write an applescript on the mac
device = 'png16m'
res = 150
outFile = 'outfile.png'
inputFile = 'file.ps'

str = 'gs -sDEVICE='+device+' -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -r'+ $
strtrim(fix(res),2)+' -sOutputFile='+outFile + $
' ' + inputFile
spawn, str
print, 'File written.'
;;--------------

The nice thing I've found about using ghostscript is that it gives very
consistent results across many different file formats. IDL is not that
consistent, thus David's claim to fame that he can make it consistent.
But this allows you to create plots at any resolution by changing the
res parameter without having to change any major system variables and
without having to regenerate your plot.

Todd

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Re: IDL 5.4 and gifs [message #23447 is a reply to message #23239]

Fri, 26 January 2001 13:01

Richard French
Messages: 173
Registered: December 2000

Senior Member

Here is the authoritative answer from the IDL Product Manager at RSINC.
(It appears to me that the best short-term solution is for some clever
soul with time on their hands to come up with an interface to the
library of GIF routines in http://www.imagemagick.org/
but that is more than I can tackle at the moment.) - Dick

> I sincerely apologize for your inconvenience in this matter. We are
> currently legally unable to fulfill your request. We are actively pursuing
> a resolution with Unisys for our users at this time. I can not give you a
> definite date for this resolution, but we will announce publicly when we are
> again able to offer this feature to our users and what the process will be
> to activate it.
>
> One detail I can confirm is that our agreement only covers our ability to
> offer GIF technology to our customers. It is, unfortunately, the customer's
> obligation to obtain a license from Unisys themselves (this is out of our
> control).
>
> If you happen to undertake this, or have already done so, I would appreciate
> learning from you what the process is like for the benefit of other users.
> Is it different for educational institutions, etc.?

David Fanning wrote:
>
> Richard G. French (rfrench@wellesley.edu) writes:
>
>> Just got David Fanning's 2d ed and on p. 150 he says
>> "you must have a ltter from the GIF file format patent
>> holder (Compuserve) granting you permission to create
>> GIF files . RSI will supply you with the proper license
>> for GIF file formation upon receipt...."
>
> Well, that is what was in the works when I wrote
> that section of the book. But the last I heard
> nothing had been worked out with Compuserve. I'd
> be curious to know where things stand too. But
> I wouldn't be surprised to find that GIF files
> are history. :-(
>
> Cheers,
>
> David
>
> --
> David Fanning, Ph.D.
> Fanning Software Consulting
> Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
> Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
> Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155

David Fanning wrote:
>
> Richard G. French (rfrench@wellesley.edu) writes:
>
>> Just got David Fanning's 2d ed and on p. 150 he says
>> "you must have a ltter from the GIF file format patent
>> holder (Compuserve) granting you permission to create
>> GIF files . RSI will supply you with the proper license
>> for GIF file formation upon receipt...."
>
> Well, that is what was in the works when I wrote
> that section of the book. But the last I heard
> nothing had been worked out with Compuserve. I'd
> be curious to know where things stand too. But
> I wouldn't be surprised to find that GIF files
> are history. :-(
>
> Cheers,
>
> David
>
> --
> David Fanning, Ph.D.
> Fanning Software Consulting
> Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
> Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
> Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155

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Re: IDL 5.4 and gifs [message #23487 is a reply to message #23239]

Thu, 25 January 2001 20:21

davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996

Senior Member

Richard G. French (rfrench@wellesley.edu) writes:

> Just got David Fanning's 2d ed and on p. 150 he says
> "you must have a ltter from the GIF file format patent
> holder (Compuserve) granting you permission to create
> GIF files . RSI will supply you with the proper license
> for GIF file formation upon receipt...."

Well, that is what was in the works when I wrote
that section of the book. But the last I heard
nothing had been worked out with Compuserve. I'd
be curious to know where things stand too. But
I wouldn't be surprised to find that GIF files
are history. :-(

Cheers,

David

--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155

Report message to a moderator

Re: IDL 5.4 and gifs [message #23490 is a reply to message #23239]

Thu, 25 January 2001 19:46

Richard French
Messages: 173
Registered: December 2000

Senior Member

Just got David Fanning's 2d ed and on p. 150 he says
"you must have a ltter from the GIF file format patent
holder (Compuserve) granting you permission to create
GIF files . RSI will supply you with the proper license
for GIF file formation upon receipt...."

I've fired off a letter to tech support but have not
heard back yet about details. In the meantime, I
thought I'd ask if anyone out there has tried to get
a license from Compuserve, and how much it would cost?
This is the first time I have heard that there was
ANY provision for allowing individual users to get a
GIF license. Of course, it may be prohibitively expensive,
but perhaps for lowly academic types who are not trying
to make money on it, it would be affordable.

I'll let you know what I found out, but thought that
others might want to know that there may be a way out
of this yet.

Dick French

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Re: HOW [message #23491 is a reply to message #23376]

Thu, 25 January 2001 18:38

Mark Chan
Messages: 24
Registered: November 2000

Junior Member

Anyone dare to answer my questions? Email me directly if needed. What is the
function of .so file and what is it's intended use?

MC

"Mark Chan" <chanm@cadvision.com> wrote in message
news:94o6t1$1vl$1@news3.cadvision.com...
> I am not a lawyer!
>
> Could someone please explain to me what 'replacing the IDL 5.4 IDL_gif.so
> library and DLM files with the ones from IDL 5.3' means?
>
> I have never done anything like this before. Will like to learn this more.
>
> I have 5.4 and am using 5.3 because of this gif problem. For the time
being
> I don't need to use this trick but don't mind knowing more.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark Chan
>
>
> "Craig Markwardt" <craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu> wrote in message
> news:ony9w79q8j.fsf@cow.physics.wisc.edu...
>>
>> I was visiting someone with IDL 5.4 on Linux today. I mentioned the
>> lack of GIF support, and my friend was surprised. We confirmed that
>> when we tried to open a GIF, we got an error message. However there
>> is an idl_gif.so library file, and WRITE_GIF, READ_GIF, etc still
>> exists as procedures in the standard library.
>>
>> We tried the simple experiment of replacing the IDL 5.4 idl_gif.so
>> library and DLM files with the ones from IDL 5.3.
>>
>> It worked! We were able at least to read old GIFs into IDL with no
>> problem. I didn't try writing any GIFs however.
>>
>> Has anybody else tried this and got it to work? For previous
>> purchasers of IDL, this at least is a good sign. :-)
>>
>> Craig
>>
>> --
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------
>> Craig B. Markwardt, Ph.D. EMAIL:
craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu
>> Astrophysics, IDL, Finance, Derivatives | Remove "net" for better
response
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------
>
>

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Re: HOW [message #23523 is a reply to message #23376]

Wed, 24 January 2001 19:53

davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996

Senior Member

Mark Chan (chanm@cadvision.com) writes:

> Could someone please explain to me what 'replacing the IDL 5.4 IDL_gif.so
> library and DLM files with the ones from IDL 5.3' means?
>
> I have never done anything like this before. Will like to learn this more.
>
> I have 5.4 and am using 5.3 because of this gif problem. For the time being
> I don't need to use this trick but don't mind knowing more
>
> I am not a lawyer!

I think what they mean is, you will NEED a lawyer if
you try this. :-)

I think even with my meager computer skills I could
figure out how to move a file from the IDL 5.3 distribution
over to the IDL 5.4 distribution. But I still think it
is easier to switch to JPEG files. And, as an added bonus,
the colors will be better and device-independent when you
publish them on the web. :-)

Cheers,

David

--
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
Toll-Free IDL Book Orders: 1-888-461-0155

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Re: HOW [message #23660 is a reply to message #23491]

Mon, 05 February 2001 22:55

marc schellens[1]
Messages: 183
Registered: January 2000

Senior Member

Mark Chan wrote:
>
> Anyone dare to answer my questions? Email me directly if needed. What is the
> function of .so file and what is it's intended use?
>
> MC

Hi Mark,

a .so file is a so called 'dynamic library' (and .a file a static
library there
are also some .la files, but I don't know what they are or what all
those extensions mean,
somebody out there who knows?) at Solaris and Linux at least.
The same (or similar) as a .dll file under windows.
A dynamic library is a file which contains parts of a program, which are
only
loaded to memory when actually needed by the program.
I.e. a library must be referenced by the (binary) program (here 'idl' or
'idlde')
to be of any use.
So the answer to your question is no, you cannot use any (binary) part
of an
old IDL version with a new version, unless you change (patch) the binary
file.
But to do this you need lots of knowledge about the binary (and .so
files ;-)

For compeltelyness: a static libray is a part of the program which is
directly
included in the program, so only needed during building the program.

cheers,
:-) marc

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