From: Shawn Hargreaves <Shawn AT talula DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Problems using allegro
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 11:15:47 +0000
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Distribution: world
Message-ID: <ETfyTEAjZ9KzEwVq@talula.demon.co.uk>
References: <19970312 DOT 054752 DOT 7495 DOT 0 DOT fwec AT juno DOT com>
 <19970315 DOT 101544 DOT 7423 DOT 14 DOT fwec AT juno DOT com>
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Mark T Logan writes:
>know nothing about these formats except that GIF uses LZH, or whatever
>that algorithm is called.  Same one as PKZIP uses.  I suspect someone
>out there must have GIF reading code, and It would be a gracious gesture
>on their part to donate it to allegro.

The GIF format uses LZW compression, and that algorithm is patented by
Unisys. Since I want people to be able to use Allegro in commercial
programs without any licencing/royalty hassles, this means I'm unable to
include any GIF reading code. Stupid, I know, but complain to the idiot
who decided algorithms were patentable (did you know that IBM has a
patent on the idea of using xor mode to draw an object and then erase
it? Hmm... :-)


/*
 *  Shawn Hargreaves - shawn AT talula DOT demon DOT co DOT uk - http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/
 *  Beauty is a French phonetic corruption of a short cloth neck ornament.
 */