Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

I have placed copies of xloadimage (a much better program than xgif)
in public directories.

	VAX/VMS:
	-------

	Executable:	GUESS::USER$T:[TATLOW.PUBLIC]XLOADIMAGE.EXE

	Documentation:	GUESS::USER$T:[TATLOW.PUBLIC]XLOADIMAGE.DOC

This is xloadimage version 1.06T2.  It is based on version 1.06 as
released to the net with additional modifications.  These
modifications allow fullscreen rootwindow images, and rotation of images.  

	RISC/Ultrix:
	-----------
	Executable:	DASH::/usr/local/bin/xloadimage

	Documentation:  DASH::/usr/man/man1/xloadimage.1

This is xloadimage version 1.06T3.  It is based on version 1.06 as
released to the net with additional modifications.  These
modifications allow fullscreen rootwindow images, rotation and
flipping of images.  The program also automatically limits the number
of colors used by rootwindow images to the number of entries available
in the colormap.
    

    I copied this file over yesterday and an very impressed! My only
    question is how does one rotate the image? The help file is very
    useful but I must not understand how the rotation is done.
    
    Thanks
    
    Mike

re -.1:

To rotate images, use the -rotate flag.  For instance, 

	xloadimage -rotate 90 image.gif

will pop up a window containing image.gif rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

Only rotations that are multiples of 90 are acceptable.


T?

    Thanks, that it! Rotate isn't cover in the help file.
    
    Mike

re .-1:

> Thanks, that it! Rotate isn't covered in the help file.
    
Yes it is.  You should realize that there are two sets of options
described in the documentation.  One set covers global options, like
-onroot or -slideshow, and the other set describes image-specific
options, like -clip or -brighten.  The -rotate option is described in
the correct place (alphabetically in the second set).  The two types of
options might seem confusing at first, but it's necessary since
xloadimage has the ability to merge separate images.  For example, one
command I use to put a certain image as my screen background is:

	xloadimage -quiet -onroot -xzoom 1070 -yzoom 970
 		-foreground grey40 -background grey75 black -at 5,5 mensetmanus

This uses the global options -quiet (don't put messages on stdout) and -onroot
(tile the rootwindow) and then has two sets of image options for the two
images.  The first image, black.xbm, is zoomed difererently in the X-
and Y-directions and its colors are set.  The second image, mensetmanus.xbm, gets
placed at a certain location within the first image.  

One of these days I'm going to write another xloadimage patch to smooth
zoomed images, but I've been pretty busy lately...  If anyone has
experience with this, please let me know and you might be able to encourage me...

T?

Re .-1
    
    Here's the help file copied from xloadimage.exe. There is no mention
    of rotate.
    
    Mike???
    
    
    
mc xloadimage -help

Global options:
  -onroot               - load image onto root window
  -border colorname     - border image with this color
  -display dispname     - destination display
  -fullscreen           - use entire screen for display
  -geometry WxH+X+Y     - destination size and location
  -help                 - print this help message
  -identify             - identify given images
  -list                 - list images in path
  -install              - explicitly install colormap
  -path                 - show image path for loading
  -quiet                - silence is golden
  -slideshow            - show show images in slideshow style
  -supported            - show supported image types
  -verbose              - whistle while you work
  -version              - show version and patchlevel
  -view                 - view image in a window
Image_options:
  -at X,Y               - load image at location
  -background colorname - background color for bitmap images
  -brighten percentage  - specify brightness multiplier
  -center               - center image
  -colors number        - specify maximum number of RGB colors
  -clip X,Y,W,H         - use clipped portion of image
  -dither               - dither color image to bitmap image
  -foreground colorname - foreground color for bitmap images
  -halftone             - halftone a color image to bitmap image
  -name name            - force next argument to be image name
  -xzoom percentage     - zoom the X axis by a percentage
  -yzoom percentage     - zoom the Y axis by a percentage
  -zoom percentage      - zoom the image by a percentage

Re .-1:

   You're right, I never did update the executable's help message. 
However, the documentation (XLOADIMAGE.DOC on VMS) *does* describe all
my patches including support for rotation.

When I finally get around to writing the smoothing code I'll make sure
that the -help option reports all the correct options.

T?

    I didn't copy over the documentation. I will though. This is great
    stuff!
    
    Thanks Mike

    I am unfamiliar with how you invoke XLOADIMAGE. I copied the image
    over (XLOADIMAGE.EXE) and RAN it. It displayed the help screen.
    When I tried to add the options (which XLOADIMAGE.DOC says "may be 
    specified anywhere on the command line) I got the familiar error:
    
    "%DCL-W-MAXPARM, too many parameters - reenter command with fewer
    parameters"
    
    I suspect that this is not invoked directly from DCL.      :)
    
    Any help fer a novice?
    
    Thanks!  
    
    John B. 

   You've got to define it as a foreign command, i.e...

   $ xloadimage :== $disk$:[directory_spec]xloadimage.exe

                    ^
	            |
        Don't forget this dollar sign


   You can then use Unix style command line arguments by doing

   $ xloadimage -h

   or whatever...


   Rich