HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dewind@acsu.buffalo.edu (Idbil Fubar)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: canonization on alt.cyberpunk
Date: 3 Sep 92 13:51:52 GMT
Organization: UB

tbredeho@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Thomas A Bredehoft) writes:

>Here's a brief comment based on my experience reading this group; perhaps it 
>will generate some discussion in return.

>As members of this group have debated and re-debated the definition of 
>cyberpunk, they have traditionally ended up taking one of two stances, one of 
>which is the utterly unsatisfactory "it's all attitude" (unsatisfactory because
>it avoids defining what attitude(s) is or are important).  The other tendency 
>is to refer to the literary works of William Gibson or Bruce Sterling as 
>guidelines. 

Perhaps a major flaw with debating "What is C-Punk" would be that C-Punk
as an entity doesn't exist yet.  Sure there are some signs of it, but we can't
say that it has fluorised (if that could be a good term for it).  Arguing
defenitions is moot.  Things change in to the future.  That is the way the 
universe is.  Don't expect that one little news group is going to sway the
course of history.  

Remember folks...the net is still young.  We have a long way to go...
Study hard, Learn your CS and Engineering and figure out how to make it all
come true to YOUR vision.  Then in a couple hundered years a historian
will be able to tell which one of us is right.

-Idbil Fubar
From: gs32+@andrew.cmu.edu (Geoffrey Spear)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: what is Cyberpunk?
Date: 25 Aug 92 23:46:15 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Basically, it's a relativly new movement in Science Fiction (it began in
the early 80s), dealing mostly with a high-tech future.  I'm sure many
people here are willing to offer a better definition.  

 Again, I strongly recommend Bruce Sterling's Mirrorshades Anthology,
which includes some of the best representative short stroies of the
movement.
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils,alt.binaries.pictures.utilities,alt.binaries.pictures.d,alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.d
From: rthomson@mesa.dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson)
Subject: /etc/magic entries wanted for Quicktime, Sun Raster formats
Followup-To: alt.graphics.pixutils
Organization: Design Systems Division, Evans & Sutherland, SLC, UT
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 92 22:15:33 GMT

[Note the followup-to line]

Does anyone have any /etc/magic entries for Apple Quicktime movies and
Sun Raster files?  Somehow file's description of them as "data"
doesn't seem too elucidating.

							-- Rich
-- 
	Repeal the personal income tax; vote Libertarian in 1992.
Disclaimer: I speak for myself, except as noted; Copyright 1992 Rich Thomson
UUCP: ...!uunet!dsd.es.com!rthomson			Rich Thomson
Internet: rthomson@dsd.es.com	IRC: _Rich_		PEXt Programmer
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
From: bbrown@infonode.ingr.com (Bailey Brown)
Subject: Re: PBMPLUS for DOS... located at...
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 21:16:22 GMT

mlelstv@speckled.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Michael van Elst) writes:

>.. especially when you have the merged executables where all the library
>stuff exists only once. The RISC code is only about 25% larger than
>80x86 code.

I just compiled uuconvert (a uuencoded binary extractor program) for
both dos (BCC 2.0) and Sparc2 (Sun cc).  The dos version is 12K, the Sparc 
version is 24K using shared libaries and a whopping 131K if it is linked
statically.  Back in the days when I was using an early gnu C++ at school
and Zortech C++ 1.0 on my pc at home, the Sparc execuables were typically
ten times the size of the PC ones.

------------
Bailey Brown                               "Above all else, confusion reigns."
Intergraph Corporation                                  
bbrown@casca.b11.ingr.com                              Procol Harum
From: rsimms@hubcap.clemson.edu (Robert Simms)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: FLY.EXE for IBM PC
Summary: looking for copy of FLY that was posted to a newsgroup
Keywords: fly graphics
Date: 30 Aug 92 02:17:05 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Clemson University

Does anyone have a copy of FLY.EXE (or its zip file) that was posted
(I think to this group) about a month ago.  A mistyped command wiped out
my recent acquisitions a short while ago, and this was a program that I
had thought of using as a screen blanker for some 4DOS btm menus.

(a copy or an address where it may be found would be all I need)  I tried
using archie, but had no luck.  If it was posted to another group, let me
know, so I can put out a request there.

					- Rob
-- 
Robert Simms                             |           rsimms@hubcap.clemson.edu
Department of Math Sciences              |       or  rsimms@gemini.clemson.edu
Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634    |       or  rsimms@math.clemson.edu
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
From: dxm26@po.CWRU.Edu (Doug Malena)
Subject: gifs
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 03:08:03 GMT


How do I get gifs off the network then convert them from binary mode?

					Doug
					dxm26@po.cwru.edu
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
From: rot@multisys.com (Republic of Taiwan)
Subject: Re: need help identifying an image format
Organization: Multimedia Information Systems Corporation, San Jose, CA                        TEL: (408) 437-3031            E-mail: info@multisys.com
Distribution: alt
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 19:01:25 GMT

In article <KSTAILEY.92Aug28190652@leidecker.gsfc.nasa.gov> kstailey@leidecker.gsfc.nasa.gov (Kenneth Stailey) writes:
=
=The following file is small example of the file format I am asking about.
=My best guess is that it's a new version of X pixmap format.
=The Extended Portable Bitmap Toolkit BETA TEST distribution of Oct 91
=has a xpmtoppm & ppmtoxpm that's totally incompatible with this.
=Does anybody have a [this format] to ppm filter?

This is supposed to be a XPM 2 format. Unfortunately, it lacks
some basic information to be able to be processed by XPM library.


=
=static char ** shell.px  = {
="32 32 3 1",
="   m #Transparent  c #Transparent",

Change above 3 lines to below, then you should be able to process it.

/* XPM2 C */
static char ** shell.px  = {
/* stopsign pixmap
 * width height ncolors chars_per_pixel */
"32 32 3 1",
"   m grey   c #555555555555",
".  m black  c #000000000000",
"X  m white  c #FFFFFFFFFFFF",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"              ....              ",
"          .....XX.....          ",
"          .XXXXXXXXXX..         ",
"        ...XXXXX.XXXX..         ",
"       ..XXXXXX.XXXXXX...       ",
"       .XXXXXXXX.XXXXXXX.       ",
"       .XX.XXXX.XXXXX.XX.       ",
"      ..XXX.XXXX.XXX.XXX..      ",
"      .XXXX.XXX.XXXX.XXXX..     ",
"      .X.XXX.XXX.XX.XXX.X..     ",
"      .XX.XX.XX.XXX.XX.XX..     ",
"      ..XX.XX.XX.X.XX.XX...     ",
"       ..XX.X.X.XX.X.XX....     ",
"        ..XX.XXXXXX.XX....      ",
"         ..XX.X....XX....       ",
"          ..XX.X.X.X....        ",
"           ...X.X......         ",
"            .X.X.X....          ",
"           .X.X.X.X...          ",
"            ..........          ",
"            ..........          ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                "};
--
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
	It's not just my .signature file, It's also a client!

replys to kstailey@gnu.ai.mit.edu or kstailey@leidecker.gsfc.nasa.gov
From: davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM (william E Davidsen)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Re: PBMPLUS for DOS... located at...
Date: 25 Aug 92 17:30:45 GMT
Reply-To: davidsen@crd.ge.com (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corporate R&D Center, Schenectady NY

In article <1992Aug25.130351.4274@infonode.ingr.com>, bbrown@infonode.ingr.com (Bailey Brown) writes:

| I think in the future, somebody ought to add DPMI 0.9 to GCC.  Yes, it has
| it's limitations, but it does give a 32bit flat address space and access to
| dos services for i/o and other stuff.  And it lets you multitask without
| having to use more than one computer.

  I think it's in the current version. Originally you couldn't run emm
with djgpp, and then a version came out which supported that, I
/thought/ that was DPMI but it might be something else. That doesn't
update old executables, though.

-- 
bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
    I admit that when I was in school I wrote COBOL. But I didn't compile.
From: veilleux@ireq.hydro.qc.ca (Wayne Veilleux)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: .DL viewer for MS-Windows 3.X
Date: 31 Aug 92 13:18:49 GMT
Organization: Institut de recherche d'Hydro-Quebec, Varennes, Canada

Hi:

Does anyone knows a .DL viewer for Ms-Windows 3.X ???

I'm looking also for a converter for .GL to .DL.

Thank you !
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
From: bbrown@infonode.ingr.com (Bailey Brown)
Subject: Re: Tiff-2.4 under DOS?
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1992 01:41:14 GMT

mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (J. D. McDonald) writes:

>In article <90j1Hgvs49@atlantis.psu.edu> malik@wilbur.psu.edu (Sohail Malik) writes:

>>abh@genesis.nred.ma.us (Andrew Hudson) writes:
>>> [...]
>>>Although all 386 C compilers can generate long ints that are 32-bits,
>>>an 'int' under 386 compilers is only 16-bits until you cast it to
>>>long. 

>>Saying 386 C compilers is not specific enough. 

>If somebody says "386 C compiler", chances are they mean a compiler
>to generate 386 specific code that runs under MS-DOS, as, of 
>course, MS-DOS is the dominant OS for the 386. 

>When they mean that, it implies that ints **are** indeed, 32 bit,
>as that is the size of the registers and all native integer arithmetic on a 
>386 in native mode.

Yes!  This is the case with the Intel 386/486 C compiler.  It is much harder
to compile non-portable dos code with it than non portable unix code
because the dos code often assumes int == 16bits and this is not the case
with a 386 32-bit protected mode C complier (Intel, gnu, Watcom, Microway,
Zortech, Meta-Ware).  I don't mention the NT nor the Unix or OS/2 2.0
compilers because these are for 32-bit operating systems, and not for
32-bit extended dos.  386 extended dos has 32-bits of flat address space, 
32 bit regs, 32bit 'ints', virtual memory typically to 256 meg with 
128 meg of mapped 4k pages) Unix code is not a problem unless it needs 
sysv ipc or berkely sockets to run.  This does not work because the 386 
protected mode dos programs have to do their own networking or multitasking 
since 386 dos extenders don't provide it.  DPMI compliant 386 
proteced mode programs can be run as subtasks of Windows 3.1 or os2/ 2.0.  
Several can be run at once. While windows and oridinary real mode dos
programs run at the same time, either in its own window or full screen.

------------ 
Bailey Brown                               "Above all else, confusion reigns."
Intergraph Corporation                                  
bbrown@casca.b11.ingr.com                              Procol Harum
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: GIF viewer for VAX DEC Station?!?!?!?!
From: mgeorgy@vmsclst1.sc.csupomona.edu
Date: 23 Aug 92 13:16:11 PDT
Organization: Computer Science Computational Systems
Nntp-Posting-User: mgeorgy

This migh be a FAQ, but then again I am new to this news group!!!  I was just
informed that there are GIF viewers for VAX Dec stations!?! Is this true?  Does
anyone knoew where I can get it via FTP???


Thanx,
Matt Georgy
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+When It Absolutely, Positively, Has To Be Taken Out Overnight!!!+
+                                                                +
+                                           -- Team Stealth      +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: rot@rlyeh.multisys.com (Republic of Taiwan)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Re: need help identifying an image format
Date: 31 Aug 1992 14:34:48 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Re: need help identifying an image format
Summary: 
Expires: 
Followup-To: 
Distribution: alt
Organization: Multimedia Information Systems Corporation, San Jose, CA                        TEL: (408) 437-3031            E-mail: info@multisys.com
Keywords: 

In article <KSTAILEY.92Aug28190652@leidecker.gsfc.nasa.gov> kstailey@leidecker.gsfc.nasa.gov (Kenneth Stailey) writes:
=
=The following file is small example of the file format I am asking about.
=My best guess is that it's a new version of X pixmap format.
=The Extended Portable Bitmap Toolkit BETA TEST distribution of Oct 91
=has a xpmtoppm & ppmtoxpm that's totally incompatible with this.
=Does anybody have a [this format] to ppm filter?

This is supposed to be a XPM 2 format. Unfortunately, it lacks
some basic information to be able to be processed by XPM library.


=
=static char ** shell.px  = {
="32 32 3 1",
="   m #Transparent  c #Transparent",

Change above 3 lines to below, then you should be able to process it.

/* XPM2 C */
static char ** shell.px  = {
/* stopsign pixmap
 * width height ncolors chars_per_pixel */
"32 32 3 1",
"   m grey   c #555555555555",
".  m black  c #000000000000",
"X  m white  c #FFFFFFFFFFFF",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"              ....              ",
"          .....XX.....          ",
"          .XXXXXXXXXX..         ",
"        ...XXXXX.XXXX..         ",
"       ..XXXXXX.XXXXXX...       ",
"       .XXXXXXXX.XXXXXXX.       ",
"       .XX.XXXX.XXXXX.XX.       ",
"      ..XXX.XXXX.XXX.XXX..      ",
"      .XXXX.XXX.XXXX.XXXX..     ",
"      .X.XXX.XXX.XX.XXX.X..     ",
"      .XX.XX.XX.XXX.XX.XX..     ",
"      ..XX.XX.XX.X.XX.XX...     ",
"       ..XX.X.X.XX.X.XX....     ",
"        ..XX.XXXXXX.XX....      ",
"         ..XX.X....XX....       ",
"          ..XX.X.X.X....        ",
"           ...X.X......         ",
"            .X.X.X....          ",
"           .X.X.X.X...          ",
"            ..........          ",
"            ..........          ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                ",
"                                "};
--
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
	It's not just my .signature file, It's also a client!

replys to kstailey@gnu.ai.mit.edu or kstailey@leidecker.gsfc.nasa.gov
From: mcaldwel@netcom.com (Michael Caldwell)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Re: Color-quantisation
Date: 26 Aug 92 18:04:31 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)

In article <RJOHNSON.92Aug24124517@conus.shell.com> rjohnson@shell.com (Roy Johnson) writes:
>Does anyone else agree that rlequant (part of the Utah Raster Toolkit)
>produces better-looking output than ppmquant?  I find that its results
>are similar in nature to those produced by the JPEG quantizer.
>--
>Roy Johnson, who is not Kibo
>Shell Development Company (but speaking for myself)
>"There's a big difference between being a lesbian and being a male!"
>			-- tabn3@isuvax.iastate.edu (Griffy)

Is that ppmquant -fs or just ppmquant?  If you don't specify the floyd-
steinberg quant you get a horrible remap only.  I find the ppmquant -fs to
be much better.

Michael
From: saltzman@crd.ge.com (Bob Saltzman)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Re: xdl - a .DL viewer for X-windows. [source]
Date: 25 Aug 92 22:09:37 GMT
Reply-To: saltzman@crd.ge.com
Organization: GE Corporate Research & Development, Schenectady, NY

I also missed the xdl sources.  Could they be reposted?  It would
really be appreciated (or maybe a reference to an archive site).

I would like to get xdl running on a VAXstation under VMS 5.5 with
Motif and TGV MultiNet TCP/IP.  Anyone try that port yet?

I have XV and GL viewer working fine in this environment.

Thanks...
==============================================================================
Robert B. Saltzman (Bob)            Internet: saltzman@crd.ge.com
Information System Operation        Snailnet: Bldg KW, Room C120, PO Box 8
General Electric Company            AT&Tnet:  518-387-5828(B), 387-6560(FAX),
Corporate Research and Development            370-2222(H)
Schenectady, New York 12301 USA     ICBMnet:  42 50 04 N, 73 54 14 W, Alt 246
AEMT-4 Paramedic/Firefighter        HAMnet:   WB2ARK
==============================================================================
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
From: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
Subject: help?
Reply-To: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken Arromdee)
Organization: Johns Hopkins University CS Dept.
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 22:35:09 GMT

How do I create vertical lines in gnuplot on top of (without erasing) a
previous graph?  The best I can do is to add a separate plot command, but this
seems to plot on its own separate graph....
--
"the bogosity in a field equals the bogosity imported from related areas, plus
the bogosity generated internally, minus the bogosity expelled or otherwise
disposed of."  -- K. Eric Drexler

Ken Arromdee (UUCP: ....!jhunix!arromdee; BITNET: arromdee@jhuvm;
     INTERNET: arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
From: cs8023@ee21.ncu.edu.tw (ee76536)
Subject: Utility/Source wanted: for bitmap skewing
Organization: Dep. of EECS, National Central University, Chungli, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 02:15:49 GMT

Hi, all netters:

I recently need a utility to help me to write a bitmap operation:
I have a planar bitmap, and I want to paste this bitmap onto a rotated
3D surface (planar also), but I cannot find a good algorithm for
transforming 2D bitmap into 3D surface bitmap. As you can see, I need to
skew bitmap so that it looks stereo, do you have any idea about this?
thanks anyway.
best regards,
anthony
-- 
>>> Anthony Li <Li3, Shih4 Hao2><Li:fruit's Name><Shih:Scholar><Hao:Hero>   <<<
<<< Institute of CSEE, National Central Univ, Chungli, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ROC >>>
>>> Internet:	oper2@ncuee.ncu.edu.tw	    cs8023@ee21.ncu.edu.tw >>>
From: fcrossen@ccvax.ucd.ie
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Help: Colour PS -> Gif, Pcx, Mac...
Date: 27 Aug 92 18:18:19 GMT
Organization: University College Dublin




Does anybody know of a util/package to convert colour Postscript files
to GIF, PCX, MAC???

PC, VMS, Ultrix solutions appreciated.

Please send reply by e-mail to mmccarthy@ccvax.ucd.ie .


Thanks,

Fran...

Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils,comp.graphics,comp.os.ms-windows.misc
From: bbrown@infonode.ingr.com (Bailey Brown)
Subject: Re: Speedstar 24x
Keywords: no probs?
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 13:08:27 GMT

dre@cray.com (Dennis Ellis) writes:

>In article <BtuvDA.Bow@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Iskandar Taib) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug20.075613.29666@u.washington.edu> rene@hardy.u.washington.edu (Rene Magritte) writes:
>>
>>The "x" uses an accelerator chip, the "no x" uses the regular
>>Tseng ET4000 chipset.
>>
>  Is the accelerator chip IN ADDITION TO the ET4000 chips, or a replacement
>of them?

The accelerator chip is a Western Digital 9031.  There is no ET4000
on the 24X.  The 9031 is backward compatible with Paradise SVGA.

>Thanks,


------------
Bailey Brown                               "Above all else, confusion reigns."
Intergraph Corporation                                  
bbrown@casca.b11.ingr.com                              Procol Harum
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
From: gallo@almira.asel.udel.edu (Andy Gallo)
Subject: Summary: animating weather maps
Organization: AI duPont Institute
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 17:41:51 GMT


	I've been inundated with mail about a question I posted a few
days ago.  The question asked where I could find an animator for GIF
files.  Specifically I wanted to animate weather maps.

	To obtain the weather maps, ftp to vmd.cso.uiuc.edu and cd to
the "wx" directory.  I posted a script to the net a few days ago that
can get the most recent map for you automagically.

	The uiuc.edu people update the maps every hour, so you can
collect a series of them and then animate them.  I've found
ImageMagick (available via ftp from export.lcs.mit.edu) to be the best
I've seen so far.  There are two disadvantages - 1) it takes quite a
while (several minutes) to take the individual GIFs and make a movie
out of them, and 2) if the number of GIFs is large, you can blow
memory (I did when I tried to animate pretty near a whole day's maps).

	Enjoy.

>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
> Andy Gallo   | gallo@asel.udel.edu  | U. of Delaware/Applied Sci & Eng Labs <
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
>     Come wash the nighttime clean, come grow the scorched ground green.     <
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------<
From: IFF291@DJUKFA11.BITNET (Stephan Petersen)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Cutting off white space around a PCX image
Date: 28 Aug 92 13:29:34 GMT
Organization: KFA  Forschungszentrum Juelich


Which PC based (MSDOS) program allows easy manual or, even better, automatic
cutting of white space around a pcx-image, to produce an image as small in
dimension as possible?

Thanks for any hints,
Stephan



+------------------------------------------------+
| Stephan Petersen                               |
|                                                |
| Bitnet/EARN: IFF291@DJUKFA11                   |
| Internet:    IFF291@zam001.zam.kfa-juelich.de  |
+------------------------------------------------+
From: kan9691@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Ken Niedermeyer)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Sun raster file to gif
Summary: Converting Sun raster files to gif
Date: 28 Aug 92 14:11:37 GMT
Organization: Drawing Data Management Systems
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

Is there a utility/program that exists that will convert a Sun raster file (*.im1, *.im8)
to a *.GIF?  If so could somebody please email me the source or let me know
where I can get the source from.

Thanks!

---
Ken Niedermeyer			| The views expressed above do not represent
Computing Systems Analyst	| those of my employer.... (but when do they?)
Boeing Computer Services (BCS)  | 
                                | NOTICE:
Internet:                       | Lack of planning on your part
kan9691@eeidf002.ca.boeing.com  | does not constitute an emergency on my part.

-- 
Ken Niedermeyer			| NOTICE:
Computing Systems Analyst	| Lack of planning on your part
kan9691@eeidf002.ca.boeing.com	| does not constitute an emergency on my part.
From: ZDV043@DJUKFA11.BITNET (Dietrich Bartel)
Newsgroups: alt.graphics.pixutils
Subject: Re: Cutting off white space around a PCX image
Date: 29 Aug 92 22:20:13 GMT
Organization: KFA  Forschungszentrum Juelich

>
>Which PC based (MSDOS) program allows easy manual or, even better, automatic
>cutting of white space around a pcx-image, to produce an image as small in
>dimension as possible?
>
>Thanks for any hints,
>Stephan
>
You may use the pbmplus package from Jef Poskanzer (extensive set of
image conversion utilities) which was ported to MSDOS too.
You have to do the steps

      pxmtoppm     (convert to portable pixmap)
      pnmcrop      (remove background or whatsoever automatically)
      ppmtopxm     (convert back < if necessary > to .pcx format)

pbmplus.zip is available by anonymous ftp from netlab2.usu.edu
(origin) as well as zam103.zam.kfa-juelich.de (in directory
pub/graphics/pbmplus, easiest for you).