source: trunk/tools/database/gd/README@ 3453

This is the gd gif-manipulating library, version 1.2. It was
created to allow graphs, charts and the like to be generated on the
fly for use on the World wide Web, but is useful for any
application in which custom .GIFs are useful. It is not a paint 
program; it is a library. If you are looking for a paint program
for the X Window System, check out David Koblas "xpaint", available 
by anonymous FTP from ftp.netcom.com in pub/ko/koblas. (I'm just a
fan of Dave's code.)

NOTE TO THE IMPATIENT: the Sun 'cc' compiler shipped
standard with SunOS 4.1.3 is NOT AN ANSI C COMPILER and
will not compile gd. Get and use gcc if you don't
already have it, or use Sun's own commercial-grade
ANSI C compiler if you prefer to purchase it.
"What's new in gd 1.2?"

Many bug fixes, ANSI C compliance, several new fonts and more.

"Where's the manual?"

Load gd.html into your web browser. Print it if you like,
but <em>every single reference to a function is a hyperlink</em>,
so the manual is especially good when read online! Note
that the entire manual is one document, so it should be
reasonably pleasant to read offline when printed. 

COPYRIGHT 1994,1995 BY THE QUEST CENTER AT COLD SPRING HARBOR LABS. 
Permission granted for unlimited use, provided that 
Thomas Boutell and the Quest Center at Cold Spring Harbor Labs are given
credit for the library in the user-visible documentation of 
your software. If you modify gd, we ask that you share the
modifications with us so they can be added to the
distribution. See gd.html for details.

gd has been compiled in various forms on all major platforms.
It is happiest on a machine with 32-bit addressing and
a proper stack (ie, anything running Unix, VMS, Windows NT
or any other modern operating system), but is entirely
usable under DOS and Windows. Note, however, that the
flood-fill routines are mildly recursive and may fail on machines
with tiny stack areas. Also, the fonts require a significant
amount of memory (they are optimized more for speed than
for size), but they need not be linked by applications that
do not use them. Otherwise the code is highly
portable as long as you have an ANSI C compiler.

Full documentation is provided in HTML (World Wide Web) format
in the file gd.html (part of this distribution). You can access the 
latest version of the file at the URL "http://siva.cshl.org/gd/gd.html". 
If you are unfamiliar with the World Wide Web, consult the Frequently
Asked Questions posting of the appropriate comp.infosystems.www.browsers
subgroup for your operating system to obtain
more information on where to locate a hypertext browser.
The text-based browser "Lynx" does a particularly good job
of navigating the manual and will run on nearly anything.
Netscape works fine too.

If you don't have the patience to consult the manual
first, build and examine gddemo.c (see the Makefile)
and run it. It will read in demoin.gif and output
demoout.gif, which you will want to examine with your
GIF viewer to see the results.

Tom Boutell, boutell@boutell.com

http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/index.html

P.O. Box 20837
Seattle, WA 98102