IFFX 1.62 User Manual March 5, 1991 Requires the arp.library KickStart 2.0 and Workbench 2.0 compatible DISCLAIMER IFFX has been thoroughly tested and is the result of a constant process of changes and updates. The program has proven to be stable in everyday use. The author is not responsible for any loss of data, damages to software or hardware that may result directly or indirectly from the use of this program. If you have suggestions or remarks about this program, of if you find any bugs, please let me know. Write to the following address: Peter Stuer Kauwlei 21 B-2550 Kontich Belgium - Europe NOTE This program needs the arp.library to run. Make sure it is in the LIBS drawer of your boot-disk. IFFX will not run without it and will exit quietly. This documentation will always be updated at the top. Users of previous versions of IFFX need only read the paragraph reflecting the changes since their last version. Changes from v1.61 ------------------ - Fixed a bug I discovered when viewing some IBM .lbm files: When IFFX encountered an unknown compression scheme it would be handled OK except that the window and the screen stayed open. Changes from v1.60 ------------------ - Fixed an 'error' in the error routine (pun intended) Changes from v1.52 ------------------ - Instead of moving the whole view only the viewport of the IFFX screen is moved when displaying overscan pictures or NTSC pictures on a PAL system. This allows you the switch the IFFX screen to the front and back without finding your Workbench screen shifted to the other side of The Twilight Zone. - The standard screen height is now looked up in GfxBase. - If no arguments are passed the ARP filerequester pops up. It keeps popping up until you select Cancel. - Ctrl-C can now be used to stop IFFX when it is showing a whole bunch of pictures, either enumerated or using a wild-card. IFFX will stop after the current picture has been shown. - IFFX can now be started from the Workbench. You can put IFFX in the Default Tool field of a project or use the standard Workbench shift-select method to give IFFX its arguments. Introduction ------------ I know, there are a zillion of IFF ILBM picture showers. So why write another one ? Well, most of them are written in C. This means relatively large and slow code. The ones written in Assembler either had too few features or didn't handle PAL/NTSC or overscan pictures. I wanted this program to be a lean, mean picture showing machine. IFFX is written completely written in highly optimized Assembler. This accounts for the small executable size. It handles PAL/NTSC, interlace, HAM, EHB, oversized, compressed or uncompressed pictures. It shows the first picture of an IFF ANIM file and the first brush of an ANIM brush. The information found in ANNO and AUTH chunks is typed to the CLI window. It can be made resident (either with the Workbench 1.3, the ARP or the CShell resident command) and it is fully re-entrant. This means that multiple instances of a resident IFFX can be started from several CLI's. Multiple arguments can be given and for CShell users, the asterisk (*) wild-card can be used to show a complete directory. What does it not do ? Color cycling is (intentionally) not supported. I left this out because there are plenty of slideshow programs that do a better job. Also it would have made the code considerably larger. Also, SID (Shareware, Timm Martin) users can use it as their IFF ILBM picture shower. Usage from a CLI window ----------------------- Execute IFFX without any arguments to get the ARP filerequester. Select the directory and the filename of the picture/anim you wish to view. After you close the picture, either select another one or click on Cancel to quit IFFX. You can also specify one or more arguments. For example: 1> IFFX :gfx/lo-res/picture1 will load the file 'picture1' found in ':gfx/lo-res' and will try to show it. Should anything go wrong IFFX will try to give a meaningful error message. IFFX will ignore any IFF chunks it does not recognize and will report this in the CLI. For example Deluxe Paint pictures include a 'DPPV' chunk. IFFX will report this as follows: Unknown chunk DPPV. This is not an error and IFFX will continue to show the picture (unless something else goes wrong). IFFX supports the ARP wild-cards so: 1> IFFX :gfx/lo-res/* will show any picture/anim that is found in the directory ':gfx/lo-res'. Usage from the Workbench ------------------------ 1) Double click the IFFX icon to get the ARP file requester. 2) Shift-select one or more pictures and double click on the IFFX icon last to show all the selected pictures. 3) Click on the icon of a picture and select Info from the Workbench menu. Click in the Default Tool string gadget and enter the full pathname and filename of IFFX f.i. C:IFFX. Click on "Save". The Workbench will now change the icon data of the picture. You can now simply double-click on the picture icon to show it. Features -------- - Close the picture by pressing a key on the keyboard or pressing any mouse-button. - The screen can be dragged by an invisible drag bar. Also in the right hand corner are invisible front/back gadget(s). - The mouse pointer will stay visible. - PAL and NTSC pictures are fully supported. NTSC picture will be centered on the screen on PAL Amigas so that there isn't a large blank area at the bottom of the screen. Overscan is fully supported. IFFX will try to center them correctly using your current view settings. HAM and EHB are supported. EHB is default when a 6 bitplane pictures is encountered unless a CAMG chunk is found. - Can be used either from the CLI or from the Workbench. Error messages -------------- Normally IFFX will try to display a meaningful error message. There are two exceptions. IFFX dynamically allocates memory for its variables. This is done before anything else, so should there not be enough memory (452 bytes), IFFX will terminate quietly. Also, IFFX uses a lot of functions of the arp.library. This library should be in the LIBS directory of your boot-disk (LIBS:) or IFFX will exit quietly. "Not an IFF ILBM file." You tried to load a file that IFFX does not recognize as an IFF ILBM file. "Unable to allocate memory for picture". IFFX tries to load the file completely into memory before showing it. This is done for speed reasons. You have not enough memory (either FAST or CHIP) to show this file. "Unable to open screen." IFFX was not able to open an Intuition screen to show the picture. This is most likely because you don't have enough chip memory. "Unable to open window." IFFX opens an unvisible window on the picture screen. Something went wrong while opening the window. "Unable to get necessary chunks." IFFX needs at least a BMHD, a CMAP and a BODY chunk to display the picture. The file you specified is probably a mangled IFF file. "Unknown compression algorithm." The picture was crunched using an algorithm that IFFX does not known. Currently uncompressed and ByteRun1 compressed pictures are supported. "DOS error n". While trying to load the file, AmigaDOS reported an error. Please refer to a AmigaDOS reference manual for the exact meaning of the error number. Future enhancements ------------------- - Color cycling (?) © 1991 Peter Stuer _ _ // Thanks to \X/ Amiga for being the best computer ever !