Re: [GD-DEVEL] help and code suggestion

HI Robert,

On 3/19/07, Robert Stephen Woodman <[email protected]> wrote:
> First of all, I hope that this message is going to the correct place. This
> is regarding the GD graphics library (http://www.libgd.org/Main_Page). The
> following message is about help and suggested changes:

If you like I can provide precompiled binaries for libjpeg, libpng,
libz, libxpm and freetype. It may help to quickly build GD from
sources using VC, ming or DevC++. Using the fresh CMake scripts, it is
really a piece of cake :-)

Expect them to be available tomorrow in our release directories (see
the downloads page).

>    I don't want to tell you what my program is, because I may never finish
> it. I hope to finish it, and then sell it to many people, however, I am not
> close to that. It is a graphics program, so picture interfaces, are sorta
> important :-). Speed is very important to me, and, from what I have seen,
> your code is rather fast. This makes me glad.

Nice to see that you have fun :)


>    I tried to include "gd_gif_in.c" and "gd.h", but my e-mail was returned,

You have to use .txt files. Ideally you may provide patches using our
issues tracker: http://bugs.libgd.org. We can still discuss them here,
but at least they don't get lost somewhere.


>    The following is my explanation, as if I had included the files (because
> I had at first), and then I have my modifications to the files. It says that
> I included the files (even though I have not), because my original e-mail
> did have the files.

First thanks for the effort you put to improve GD!

Sadly, Roman Nemecek already wrote a patch already and we planed to
use it in 2.1.0:

http://bugs.libgd.org/?do=details&task_id=57

I would like to discuss the addition of animated and multi pages
formats before choosing an API or adding informations to the gdImage
struct. I will try to add some drafts about this topic to the wiki and
we can discuss it here.

>    Hey, I noticed that in your newer distribution of the source, for the
> graphics library, that you included some sample pictures
> (gd-2.0.34\tests\gif). The pictures are called "bug" and then are given some
> number. When looking at one of them, I notice that it was sort of a fairy
> type thing (not what I had thought from the name "bug"). This character,
> however, was not well dressed. You shouldn't distribute things like that.

To be honest, I have no idea what this character is. It is one of
those small elfs (the latest Disney/pixar/whatever have some) or some
kind of manga character. However, the goals of these files are not
about being seen (most of the image files there cannot be read anyway)
but to test real bugs in GD. In this case a serious problem which can
end into a segfault or code injection.

That being said, I do not push sensible pictures into the releases or
tests (no porn or copyrighted images) and always try to create neutral
pictures (lines, shapes, etc..) instead whenever it is possible. In
the case that worries you, it was not possible. I apologize if this
pictures is an offense, even if I fail to see what's is offended in
there.

Regards,
--Pierre