******************************** GIF32 Version 1.00a (1993/04/05) ******************************** (c) 1993 Joel Armengaud All rights reserved ************ Introduction ************ This package is a 32bit GIF viewer, for OS/2 2.x. The user interface is a Presentation Manager program, but the viewer itself is a full-screen program, using the Base Video Handler services (BHVxxx.DLL). It supports all SVGA adapters correctly detected by the OS/2 SVGA.EXE program. On other adapters, only the 320x200x256 mode will be available. Files in this package: gif32.exe giffs.exe readme.txt I am distributing this program as FREEWARE. However I will greatly appreciate any donation. ******* Author: ******* Joel Armengaud E-Mail: joe2@vnet.ibm.com (Not valid after 1993/05/31) joe@cti.ecp.fr (Not valid after ????) 100030.152@compuserve.com (Checked infrequently) Mail: Joel Armengaud Le Grand Lot 13720 Belcodene FRANCE ********** Disclaimer ********** BY INSTALLING THIS PROGRAM ON YOUR SYSTEM YOU INDICATE YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THEM YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THIS PROGRAM. THIS PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION ARE DISTRIBUTED AS IS. JOEL ARMENGAUD (THE AUTHOR) MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THIS SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, OR ANY OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR THE INABILITY TO USE THIS PROGRAM, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. ************ Installation ************ Quite easy! Just put the 2 .EXE files in the same directory, not necessarily in your PATH. The program to launch is GIF32.EXE. *********** Using GIF32 *********** When you start GIF32.EXE, a PM window will show all *.GIF files found in the current directory. One GIF file per line. If you want to see a GIF file, double-click on the filename, or put the cursor on the line and press Enter. The file will be decompressed by another thread into main memory. When completed, this memory bitmap will be sent to the full-screen viewer, GIFFS.EXE (which is automatically started by GIF32.EXE). The full-screen session is then put into the foreground. Keystrokes available in the full-screen session: F9/F10 Decrease/Increase video resolution. Except for the 320x200x256 mode, available resolutions are read from the \os2\svgadata.pmi file, created by SVGA.EXE. Please be sure that SVGA support is installed on your system (refer to the OS/2 documentation). The svgadata.pmi file is searched in your DPATH. Note that only 256-color modes will be used to display pictures, even for 16-color GIF files. When you first select a picture, the full-screen viewer will choose the lowest resolution large enough to display the whole picture. ESC Return to the PM interface. Arrows To scroll the picture if resolution and PageUp/PageDown image size do not match. Home/End F11/F12 Display previous/next GIF file, without having to switch to the PM interface. For keyboards without F11/F12, you can also use 'P' and 'N' keys. About the PM interface: In the main PM window, each line is associated to a GIF file. A '*' in the first column indicates that the GIF file has already been decompressed into memory. A red '*' means that it is currently being decompressed. GIF32 uses a multi-thread design, to save you time by reading and decompressing the file ahead of time. By default, it always tries to have 2 GIF files decompressed, the current one and the next one. This look-ahead value can be modified using the "Look-ahead.." choice of the "Options" menu. Before increasing the value, be aware that picture buffers consume system memory. For instance 8 800x600x256 GIF files will use as far as 3750Kb of main memory! The "Loop" option will allow you, when selected, to consider the list of GIF files as a circular list, when moving with F11/F12 in the full-screen session. By default the main client window will use system colors for listboxes. Due to a bug in some early OS/2 versions, background and foreground text colors may both be black! Should this happen, de- select the "System colors" choice in the "Options" menu. The "Video modes" sub-menu will allow you to see the 256-color modes found in the SVGADATA.PMI file, and to disable some of them if they do not work. To change the current directory, choose the "Open..." menu, and select a new GIF file in another directory. Warning! Due to a bug in the WinFileDlg API, each time you change the current directory, memory will be allocated and only released when you close GIF32. This bug is in 2.0, 2.0+ServicePack and 2.1beta 6.479 and 6.498. I hope I have reported it soon enough to have it fixed in the 2.1 GA version. Meanwhile, avoid using "Open..." too often without closing GIF32. Note: depending of the version of OS/2 you are using (2.0, 2.0+ServicePack, 2.1,...) you may have problems with the library containing the low level screen routines (BVHSVGA.DLL), if you leave the full-screen session using Ctrl-Esc or Alt-Esc. To avoid this, always leave the full-screen session using the ESCape key. When you do so, GIFFS.EXE will go back to text mode before leaving the session. Besides, it will save memory, since BVHSVGA.DLL will not have to allocate a full video buffer to save the picture. Note: the module GIFFS.EXE needs I/O priviledge. So please check that you have IOPL=YES in your CONFIG.SYS (or if you choose to list all the IOPL modules, add GIFFS to the list). ******* History ******* v1.0 1993/02/15 First release v1.0a 1993/04/05 New method to parse SVGADATA.PMI, to support the new format of the OS/2 2.1 March beta. Added support of Cirrus chips GD5422, GD5424 and GD5426 (not tested, because of the lack of Cirrus adapter!). Fix a problem with the name of the GIFFS.EXE module (was 'MAIN' instead of 'GIFFS'). This was a problem with the IOPL statement of the CONFIG.SYS. The Home/End/Pageup/Pagedown keys should now work on all keyboards. Added 'P' and 'N' keys for keyboards without F11/F12. Added the 'Video modes' sub-menu, to disable selected modes. End of README.TXT file.