Re: FW: Cool

[Chris Lawrence <cnlawren@olemiss.edu>]

On Dec 16, Brent Fulgham wrote:
> > 
> > GIF is completely wrong format. It should not be used in free world.
> > Is there any other reasonable animated pictures format ?
> >
> The MNG standard (based on PNG) will probably become the next animated
> standard (at least in free software).  Unfortunately, Mozilla does not
> support MNG, so we are limited to the GIF format.

In point of fact, the GIF format is not the problem: LZW compression
is the problem.  GIFs can be and are created without LZW compression;
there is nothing wrong with the use of "uncompressed" (actually
expanded) GIFs.

Debian, in fact, includes tools to write uncompressed GIFs.  The
"spinner" could be created using these tools, circumventing the Unisys
patent issues.


Chris
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