From: fritz@ra.csc.ti.com (Fritz Whittington)
Subject: Re: Looking for gif/tiff/pcx/fax/.... converter
Organization: Texas Instruments
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 14:07:07 GMT

In article <19921008.183237.994@almaden.ibm.com> mickeyf@vnet.ibm.com (Mickey Ferguson) writes:
>In <1992Oct8.181546.10345@Cadence.COM> Jim Howard writes:
>>In article <19nvgdINNkgm@seven-up.East.Sun.COM>, varouj@garp.East.Sun.COM (Var Garapetian, Sun-BOS Hardware. 508-671-0298) writes:
>>|> I'm looking for one or more programs to let me convert an image
>>|> from one format to another. I would prefer ms-win or dos progs,
>>|> but unix or sun-os is fine too (public domain or shareware).
>>|> The formats I'm interested in are:
>>|>      fax format (generated by winfax-pro)
>>|>      pcx, pic, bmp, gif
>>|>      tiff (so many versions... is there a most common one?)
>>|>      postscript (I doubt I'll get this one :-))
>>|>      jpeg and any others are a plus ;-)
>>|>
>>|> Please email me the responses and I'll summarize in a week
>>|> or so.
>>|>
>>|> Thanks much, Var.
>>|> ==========================================================================
>>|> Varoujan Garapetian,   Sun Microsystems, East-Coast Div.=
>>|> UUCP:                  {hplabs,ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,seismo}!sun!vgarapetian
>>|>                        {decvax}!eagle_snax!garp!var
>>|> INTERNET:              vgarapetian@East.Sun.Com
>>|> ==========================================================================
>>
>>    The FAQ already talks about the PBMPlus tools suite.  It handles nearly
>>all the formats you mention above.  The only thing it doesn't do is BMP
>>format (I've heard there are dozens of BMP formats), and it doesn't do JPEG.
>>BUT, once you get the IJG's JPEG software and add it to your PBMPlus
>>suite, you get that too!
>
>Ahhhh, you Unix guys! :)  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the requester here
>is looking for *DOS* solutions, not Unix.  As far as I know, PBMPlus is
>for Unix.  Well, even if he isn't looking for that, I am!  My notebook
>computer will not be running Unix, unless it suddenly starts replicating
>its memory and the hard disk develops a glandular problem!  :(  Any ideas
>for DOS?
>
>Mickey Ferguson -- Rolm -- FergusoM at scrvm2 -- mickeyf@vnet.ibm.com

Well, he said *prefer* DOS, but Unix was OK.  (Being at Sun, it had
better be!)

For plain DOS, I *think* that pbmplus has been compiled under djgpp,
so if you have enough memory you should be able to run that version.

I'm not sure if this kind of thing is really appropriate for a
notebook, anyway.  Unless the notebook is your *only* computer.  If
that's the case, then if you have at least 4-6 MB of RAM and can get
15-20 MB of disk space free, then OS/2 Version 2.0 might be a viable
option to consider.  If you want a command-line only (no GUI) and if
you aren't interested in running Windows either, then you could
install OS/2 as the only operating system; use the DOS emulator to run
your usual DOS programs, and OS/2 will run pbmplus.  You should be
able to fit OS/2 into 15 MB of disk if you don't install the extra
things like Windows emulation, WorkPlaceShell (GUI), on-line docs,
etc.

32-bit versions of pbmplus, Gnu Emacs and the full development tolls
from GNU FSF are available from ftp-os2.nmsu.edu.


-- 
Fritz Whittington Texas Instruments, P.O. Box 655474, MS 446 Dallas, TX 75265
    Shipping address: 13510 North Central Expressway, MS 446 Dallas, TX 75243  
fritz@csc.ti.com             Office: +1 214 995 0397     FAX: +1 214 995 6194
Since I am not an official TI spokesperson, these opinions contain no spokes.
Xref: sparky comp.dcom.fax:1837 comp.graphics:10415 alt.binaries.pictures.utilities:1241 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.wanted:6630 comp.os.ms-windows.misc:3703