Re: libgd-perl moving to PNG
David Huggins-Daines <dhd@eradicator.org> writes:
> On Sun, Dec 05, 1999 at 05:48:44PM -0500, Ben Pfaff wrote:
> > There's no good reason for libgd-perl to be in non-free, that I
> > can see. The current bad reason for libgd-perl to be in non-free
> > is that it uses libgd from non-free (which would actually place
>
> No, it doesn't actually. It uses its own internal copy of the libgd (GIF)
> sources.
Okay, I was unaware of that.
> Part of the reason for moving to a newer version is that newer
> versions are able to link against the system's libgd library instead of
> compiling in their own version.
I see. I didn't know that either.
> This internal version does LZW compression, unfortunately. However, we
> could update it to match our current (free) libgd-gif1 package.
>
> This is obviously not what the upstream author wants, and if we do this, our
> package will remain several versions behind indefinitely.
That is obviously undesirable.
> > libgd-perl in contrib, go figure). For its part, libgd is in
> > non-free because *older versions* had LZW compression code.
>
> libgd is not in non-free. Even before the one I just uploaded (1.7.3), it
> was already in main.
I stand corrected.
> > Newer versions of libgd use run-length compression instead, which
> > is not patented.
>
> No, they produce PNG instead of GIF. However there's libgd-gif now, which
> is probably what you're thinking of. It's an older version of GD, after
> the removal of LZW but before the switch to PNG.
That is the one that I'm thinking of. I haven't used the PNG
version of gd, since PNG is useless if you want to support the
most web browsers. Not everyone runs an up-to-date
PNG-supporting browser, unfortunately. If I started using PNGs
everywhere instead of GIFs then my users would complain loudly
until I changed back.
> > IMO, the proper solution is to release a libgd that supports
> > *BOTH* GIF and PNG, and I see no reason why this shouldn't or
> > couldn't be done.
>
> It would be a fork. The upstream author most definitely won't do it.
I still think it is a good idea. If you're willing to take on
the project then I'd like to encourage it. Depending on how
modular the libgd or libgd-perl code is, it might be a pretty
easy one-time thing to do, just re-applying the patch each time
the package is upgraded. Of course it's not my package so I
won't try to tell you how to do it. But it would definitely be a
convenience.
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