| Re: [AD] GIF patent / support |
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Chris wrote:
"Supporting a more popular format would make Allegro programs too
dependant on that format and go against Allegro's cross-platform and
format-inspecific nature. There are plenty of add-on extensions for you
to pick and choose from to put in your own code."
On second thought, this sounds like a cop out too.
I'd still suggest not saying anything. I would be all up for including
PNG support, and can think of a useable way to do it with Windows and
Unix with dynamic-loaded libs.. of course there'd be a problem with
systems that can't use those.
Basically, I'd just load the .so/DLL manually, import the functions
manually, and call them as done in loadpng. The zlib and libpng DLLs
could be distibuted with the Allegro distro (for Windows; Unix could
just leave it as an optional dependancy.. most would have it anyway) and
the DLL/.so would be checked when Allegro inits. If the dynamic libs
don't exist when the program inits, PNG support is disabled but Allegro
would function normally otherwise. It would be up to the user to require
libpng/zlib for their individual programs (either by supplying the DLLs
Allegro has, or as a dependancy).
- Kitty Cat