Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 13:03:04 +0900
From: Stephen Turnbull <turnbull AT shako DOT sk DOT tsukuba DOT ac DOT jp>
To: A DOT APPLEYARD AT fs2 DOT mt DOT umist DOT ac DOT uk
Cc: DJGPP AT SUN DOT SOE DOT CLARKSON DOT EDU
Subject: Graphics again

   From: "A.Appleyard" <A DOT APPLEYARD AT fs2 DOT mt DOT umist DOT ac DOT uk>

     More re graphics: people keep sending me .GIF and .JPEG graphics:
     (1) What can I read them with? Can `Paintshop Pro' read them? 
     Where to get it? Is it on oak.oakland.edu, and if so, what
     directory and filename on?

Sounds like a commercial package to me....  I use xv, but I gather
that you don't have X so that's a lose for you.  The next release of
Ghostscript will contain Postscript programs to read those two major
formats, but that's no help to you until it happens, probably not for
a couple of months.  Also, there is a no-commercial use license on the
most current versions of Ghostscript.  This will be just fine with you
from the point of view of studying the techniques, but be aware there
is a warning on that one.  See below for those two programs.

     (2) Where can I find details of the internal format of .PCX,
     .GIF, .JPEG, etc graphics files?, so I can write my own files in
     those formats if I have to.

The Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is a product of
Compuserve released by them for public use.  Some text files related
to the standard are available on Simtel mirrors in .../msdos/gif.  I
forget the names of those files.  You don't necessarily need them,
however, as there is an excellent package called giflib written in C
available in the same directory.

JPEG is the Joint Photographic Experts Group.  I don't know where to
find the standards; perhaps in Simtel .../msdos/graphics.  A freely
redistributable implementation is available on ftp.uu.net in
/graphics/jpeg, I believe.

All the graphics formats you could ever want, and some you never
would, are implemented in xv.  This is available from U Penn, but I
forget exactly where.  An old version which has the advantage of being
a port to DJGPP + DV/X (although the file handling parts are probably
not changed at all) is on ftp.qdeck.com in /pub/ports/applications (I
think; it might be in .../games or something like that). It will have
pointers to the current distribution.

All the graphics formats you could ever want are implemented in
Ghostscript, available from ftp.cs.wisc.edu.  I'm a beta tester so I
forget where in the anonymous FTP directory structure you can findr
the released version but it's easy to find.  There are two versions
currently in public release, 2.6.1 under the GPL, and 3.12 (I think)
under a somewhat different Aladdin license.  The directory structure
will look something like /pub/ghostscript/gnu and
/pub/ghostscript/aladdin for the different versions.  There is a port
to DJGPP + DV/X.  AFAIK, there is no driver for GRX, but there is one
for Linux SVGAlib.

     (3) Where can I find details of the internal format of Word
     Perfect files?  (i.e. the files that Word Perfect outputs text
     files in.) 

In, I believe, .../msdos/text or .../msdos/tex on Simtel there are two
different programs called wp2latex and wp2ltx or something like that.
These are partial implementations of Word Perfect to LaTeX
translations; that will give you a start.  I think wp2latex refers to
a book called "Undocumented WP" or something like that.

I have also seen a reference to a fairly complete list of file formats
in paper form.  I have no idea where, though.

-- 
Stephen Turnbull  /  Yaseppochi-gumi  /  <turnbull AT shako DOT sk DOT tsukuba DOT ac DOT jp>
http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/      anon FTP: turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
Check out Kansai-WWW, too ------------> http://pclsp2.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp/