GIFLITE Front-End GL_FRONT is a front-end GIF file scanning program intended for use with Tsung Hu's GIFLITE GIF compression program. It will do a quick scan of all the GIFs in a specified directory and determine which of them do not contain the GIFLITE signature. The names of these GIFs are written to a file that can be passed to GIFLITE. GIFLITE is a great program and I use it all the time. It has saved me several hundred megabytes (not to mention close to $1000 worth) of disk space. GIFLITE does seem to have one small shortcoming though. It really doesn't handle directories with hundreds of GIFs very well. As a programmer I can sympathize with Tsung Hu's plight in writing a program that must deal with hundreds of thousands of bytes of GIF data and still must be able to maintain potentially infinite lists of files. GL_FRONT has a big advantage in dealing with the file lists since that's all it does. If you have a directory with hundreds of GIFs that don't contain the GIFLITE signature, GL_FRONT probably won't help much. But if you've got a directory with hundreds of GIFs, most of which have already been processed by GIFLITE and contain the GIFLITE signature, then GL_FRONT can give you the ability to quickly scan the directory and create a list of just those GIFs that still need to be compressed. This list of files can then be passed to GIFLITE. GL_FRONT accepts several parameters. You can specify the name of the output file with the -O parameter (e.g. -Ogiflist.out). The O can be upper or lower case and the - can be a / if you're so inclined. The name of the output file can be a qualified path/file name. If this parameter is omitted, GL_FRONT will use the default of GIFLITE.LST in the current directory. GL_FRONT can be used to generate a batch file that will run GIFLITE separately for each of the files found that do not contain the GIFLITE signature. This file will be of the form GIFLITE This will be repeated for each of the non-GIFLITE'd files found. This feature is enabled with the -G parameter. GL_FRONT expects that you will be passing some parameters to GIFLITE, so you MUST immediately follow the -G with a parameter string ENCLOSED IN QUOTES. (e.g. GL_FRONT -G"-9 -t") If you normally use the GIFLITE defaults just put a space in between the quotes (e.g. GL_FRONT -G" "). This option can be combined with the -O option above to generate a .BAT file that can be run immediately after running GL_FRONT. GL_FRONT also provides for running other programs from a batch file in the same manner as described above for the -G option. With the -B option you have to specify both the command name and any parameters that need to be associated with it (e.g. GL_FRONT -B"giflite -9"). Again, the parameters to the -B option MUST be enclosed in quotes. GL_FRONT also allows the specification of the directory path to be searched for GIFs. To specify more than one directory path just separate them with spaces. You can specify as many as will fit on the command line. This parameter is NOT preceded by a special designator like the others mentioned above. If no directory path is specified, the current directory is used. To specify the current directory in addition to other directories, list the current directory as . or .\ on the command line. In somewhat condensed form, here's the precise command format: GL_FRONT [options] [path | [path]] The possible values for [options] are: [-Ooutfile] - This specifies the output file. [-G""] - This indicates that GL_FRONT should create a batch file that will run GIFLITE on each of the files tagged by GL_FRONT. Parameters to GIFLITE must be enclosed in quotes. Even if no GIFLITE parameters are specified, the quotes MUST be present. [-B""] - This indicates that GL_FRONT should create a batch file that will run the specified command on each of the files tagged by GL_FRONT. The name of the command and any parameters associated with it must be enclosed in quotes. The -G and -B options are mutually exclusive. GL_FRONT will print some status info to the screen as it's doing its job. This is pretty self-explanatory. Please note that GL_FRONT does it's thing by looking for the GIFLITE signature in the GIF file. This means any GIF processed by GIFLITE using the -f or -h parameters will show up as not having been processed. Reprocessing the GIF will not cause any problems other than wasting time and computing resources. Legal Stuff Graphics Interchange Fromat and GIF are copyrighted by CompuServe and H&R Block Company. GIFLITE is copyrighted by Tsung Hu. GL_FRONT is copyrighted by Jay Heyl. License GL_FRONT is copyrighted by the author, but no fee is charged or requested for its use in a non-commercial environment. You are free to copy and distribute GL_FRONT for non-commercial use if no fee is charged for use, copying, or distribution. Non-profit organizations may make copies and distribute GL_FRONT to their members and may charge a small fee, not to exceed $2 (postage not included), to cover the costs of media. Subscription Bulletin Board Systems may post GL_FRONT for download as long as there is no charge directly associated with the download of GL_FRONT. Commercial, for-profit distributors of freeware, shareware, or public domain software may NOT charge a fee for the distribution of GL_FRONT. If you find a commercial use for GL_FRONT, contact the author at the BBS or P.O. Box listed below and we'll talk. Disclaimer GL_FRONT is provided AS IS without any warranty, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, fitness for any purpose. Use, and the consequences thereof, are entirely your risk. In no event will the author, Jay Heyl, be liable for any damages whatsoever resulting from the use of GL_FRONT. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions concerning GL_FRONT, you may contact Jay Heyl at The Cookie Jar BBS, 714-997-0350. The latest version of GL_FRONT will always be available there. If you don't have a modem (then where'd you get all those GIFs?) or don't want to pay for the phone call, you can write me at P.O. Box 2221, Orange, CA 92669. Revision History Version 1.0 09/15/91 - Initial release. Version 1.01 09/20/91 - Added -G and -B parameters.