#strange GIF format
19 messages in this thread
There is a graphic CD of a swimsuit manufacturer "Women of Venus".
It is full of files #?.GIF, the cover text says it contains GIFs and
catalogs of CD shops say so.
None of my viewers can read the files, however, nor does GIFinfo recognize
anything. All programs claim, that it is _not_ GIF.
????
Any idea?
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
Well it could be that the GIF's might be in the GIF89a format, which can
contain text, multiple images, etc. A lot of the viewers would choke on
those. Also, was this CD created for the Mac or PC? If it was created for
the Mac, then they might have nasty things like MacBinary headers.
// John – (Being artistic via AutoPilot)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
John,
I am not sure, but what I saw from GIFinfo, it knows 87a and 89a – i.e. it
can not read the formats, but is able to identify them and tell to the
user.
The CD was – according to the cover – created "for all kinds of
platforms", including Mac, Amiga, PC, UNIX.
I try to get hold now of various datatypes for different platforms, maybe
one of the is applicable.
TNX for your answer.
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
John,
I have uploaded a sample file into lib "graphic utilities".
Every file appeared twice (same name!!!!).
Amiga-DOS was not able to copy the larger (and most presumably real) one.
The keywords to search are unidentified GIF; name is Venus8.GIF
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
The file you uploaded (at 7 hundred and some odd bytes) was not a GIF
file.
-sja
Steve,
thank you for checking that; I was afraid that this would be the result.
As mentioned already, all files appeared twice with exactly the same file
name, the first one (unfortunately!) always being the one with 727 bytes.
Thats what the viewers find. The workbench will only find 1 file for each.
The shell, from which I copied, will find 2.
All very strange! I wonder how _any_ operating system can cope with such a
directory?
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
Eberhard: It sounds like you are trying to read this CD as a Mac CD,
that's why it's finding the 2 files in the directory. One is a resource
fork, which contains the basic stuff for the Mac so it can identify the
file. The other file in the directory would be the data fork, which
contains the data for the file. You should be able to read the data fork,
which is the actual .GIF file. Which CD-ROM driver software are you using
anyway? Some of the drivers can be forced to making the CD read the files
in the standard PC format without the resource forks.
// John – (Being artistic via AutoPilot)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
John,
I do not understand, because I am using Amiga-DOS standard version 3.0. I
was not aware that it can read Mac files.
The CDrom file system I a using is freeware: it came with PhotowarX
professional and is called AmiCDROM. Unfortunately I don`t know how to
extract the version number.
Does this help?
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
"I do not understand, because I am using Amiga-DOS standard version 3.0. I
was not aware that it can read Mac files."
Well it's not AmigaDos that is reading your CD, but the AmiCDROM driver.
The best thing for you to do is to post a copy of your Mountlist entry, or
the Devs/DosDrivers entry for the CD0 (or whatever they call it) device.
AmiCD has so many possible options, I won't be able to help much unless I
can take a look at the mountlist entry. Specifically the line that
contains:
STARTUP="
Once I can take a look at that, then I might be able to advise you of some
changes you can make so the CD will be properly recognized.
// John – (Being artistic via AutoPilot)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
John,
as you suggested, here the mountlist entry (or what I believe it might be
the mountlist):
__________________________________________________________________________
; $VER: startup-sequence 39.9 (9.8.92)
C:SetPatch QUIET
C:Version >NIL:
C:AddBuffers >NIL: DF0: 15
FailAt 21
…
BindDrivers
C:Mount >NIL: DEVS:DOSDrivers/~(#?.info)
_____________________________________________________________________
—- that was S:startup-sequence
_____________________________________________________________________
; user-startup
;
;BEGIN MapDevice
MapDevice parallel.device 0 TO pit.device 0
;END MapDevice
;BEGIN MSPatch
C:MSPatch oktagon.device 0 -quiet
;END MSPatch
…
___________________________ that was S:user-startup ___________________
Handler = Work:CD/CDROM-Handler
Stacksize = 8000
Priority = 5
GlobVec = -1
Mount = 1
Startup = "DEVICE-oktagon.device-UNIT-0"
________________________________________________________________________
and that was SYS:Devs/DOSdrivers/CD0.
Is there anything more, what might be relevant?
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
No idea, but when you do get to read them, why don't you upload some? <g>
DJ
On AP from Queens, the rotten core of the Big Apple
They are propably copyrighted, but I will try tomorrow and make a remark,
if copyright is applicable.
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
Eberhard,
Could you copy one of the directorys to a message here. This way we may
be able to decipher what those files actually are.
Try this;
Select a directory where you are trying to get pictures, then type;
DIR >Ram:dir.txt
Go back to AutoPilot and write us a message. From the "Actions" menu,
import the file ram:dir.txt. Edit the file if it is a bit long. Make
sure to include an example of each file-type in the particular directory.
(i.e. .Gif .map .txt .tiff .pict)
This should help in a proper evaluation of the situation.
//
Gary Vander Mei on Auto-Pilot \X/
Gary,
according to your suggestion here follow:
– the main directory of the CD,
– a subdirectory with GIF files,
– list result of the subdirectory:
__________________________________________________________________________
MAC (dir)
MUSIC (dir)
PC (dir)
VENUS241 (dir)
VENUS242 (dir)
VENUS243 (dir)
VENUS244 (dir)
VENUS245 (dir)
VENUS321 (dir)
VENUS322 (dir)
VENUS323 (dir)
VENUS324 (dir)
VENUS325 (dir)
VENUS81 (dir)
VENUS82 (dir)
VENUS83 (dir)
VENUS84 (dir)
VENUS85 (dir)
VENUSADS (dir)
CPSDELETEINFO. DESKTOP.
DESKTOP_DB. DESKTOP_DF.
README.TXT
_______________________________________________________________________
CINEMA.EXE GO.BAT
VENUS.SHO VENUS700.GIF
VENUS700.GIF VENUS701.GIF
VENUS701.GIF VENUS702.GIF
VENUS702.GIF VENUS703.GIF
…..
VENUS793.GIF VENUS794.GIF
VENUS794.GIF VENUS795.GIF
VENUS795.GIF VENUS796.GIF
VENUS796.GIF VENUS797.GIF
VENUS797.GIF VENUS798.GIF
VENUS798.GIF VENUS799.GIF
VENUS799.GIF VIDEO7.DRV
_________________________________________________________________________
CINEMA.EXE 75304 —-rwed 06-Jul-90 01:25:42
GO.BAT 19 —-rwed 25-Jul-92 19:22:21
VENUS.SHO 2578 —-rwed 07-Sep-92 04:46:14
VENUS700.GIF 727 —-rwed 27-Jun-92 23:41:45
VENUS700.GIF 23658 —-rwed 27-Jun-92 23:41:45
VENUS701.GIF 727 —-rwed 13-Jul-92 23:07:43
VENUS701.GIF 36719 —-rwed 13-Jul-92 23:07:43
VENUS702.GIF 727 —-rwed 21-Sep-92 23:15:14
VENUS702.GIF 19109 —-rwed 21-Sep-92 23:15:14
VENUS703.GIF 727 —-rwed 19-Apr-92 13:00:10
VENUS703.GIF 38014 —-rwed 19-Apr-92 13:00:10
VENUS704.GIF 727 —-rwed 21-Sep-92 23:14:26
….
VENUS796.GIF 727 —-rwed 23-Sep-92 20:25:14
VENUS796.GIF 19059 —-rwed 23-Sep-92 20:25:14
VENUS797.GIF 727 —-rwed 23-Sep-92 20:24:36
VENUS797.GIF 16742 —-rwed 23-Sep-92 20:24:36
VENUS798.GIF 727 —-rwed 23-Sep-92 20:29:04
VENUS798.GIF 17362 —-rwed 23-Sep-92 20:29:04
VENUS799.GIF 727 —-rwed 23-Sep-92 20:23:56
VENUS799.GIF 17742 —-rwed 23-Sep-92 20:23:56
VIDEO7.DRV 5202 —-rwed 28-Apr-90 16:46:22
204 files – 1199 blocks used
_________________________________________________________________________
I hope that especially the list reveals something about the directory
structure.
When I try to copy a file with the shell or with the workbench by moving
its faked icon, it will _always_ copy the 727 byte version.
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
Eberhard,
In my ASIM CDFS software, it has a prefs editor selection called "HFS
Fork:". You should be able to select from "data", "resource" or maybe
even "MacBinary II". If you have anything similar to this change it to
"Data".
Report back on what you find out…
//
Gary Vander Mei on Auto-Pilot \X/
Gary,
it seems as if I had to change my file system. I will propably do this
along with an upgrade to OS 3.1.
I have no documentation on AmiCDROM and I have no glue whether I can can
the settings you mentioned (data, resource, HFS fork, …) and where.
I have checked DOSdrives and startup scripts, but the result was negative.
I`ll keep you informed in case enlightenment will come upon me.
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
Gary, (2nd reply)
in "Amiga-Magazin" 8/94 there was a comparisom of CD-ROM file systems:
– CDx (10.8 points of 12 max),
– AmiCDROM (10.0 of 12),
– AsimCDFS (11.1 of 12),
– BabelCDROMFS (9.1 of 12),
– CacheCDFS (10.4 of 12).
AsimCDROM was the only one to read MacBinary files; all the others except
BabelCDROMFS can select DataFork or ResourceFork, however.
So I will try to get an original release with full documentation of
AmiCDROM; the add-on to PhotoworX seems to have no documention.
Thanks to your help, I know at least, what I have to check in order to
solve my problem. Before, this terminology was absolutely meaningless to
me.
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)
Eberhard,
The only files you can use end in ".GIF". Their may be TIFF and other
formats that you probably have no use for let alone ability to use.
//
Gary Vander Mei on Auto-Pilot \X/
Gary,
the file names end with ".GIF", definitely!
The .TIFF I did not consider. But each file appears twice (same name!!!).
The first one is always 727 bytes long.
Eberhard Spittler
(using AutoPilot V1.74)