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




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