Re: Minutes: Foreign OSes BoF

["Tor Lillqvist" <tml iki fi>]

>  * The loader's "create by type" function uses the module's name (i.e.
>  "gdi+" or "png"), rather than a mime-type. Lots of programs assume a
>  1:1 relationship (eg. "give me the 'wmf' loader").

OK, so the internal interface between the gdk-pixbuf "main" code and
built-in loaders could then be enhanced (without affecting the public
API) so that gdk-pixbuf upper level code creates as many
"pseudo-loaders/savers" as needed when a built-in loader/saver tells
that it actually supports multiple formats. That way to the user
programs it would still be a 1:1 relationship between "pseudo-" loader
name and image types.

>  * The query-loaders mechanism requires that the supported formats be
>  known ahead of time

With built-in GDI+ (and ani, pnm, ras, xpm etc) loaders, no
gdk-pixbuf.loaders file is needed.

>  * There is no way that I know of to distinguish between a
>  metafile/vector format and a raster format, except maybe to try
>  loading everything as a metafile and see if something fails.

Hmm, there are the ImageCodecFlagsSupportBitmap and
ImageCodecFlagsSupportVector bits in the ImageCodecInfo::Flags field,
is that enough?

>  * The functions that enumerate GDI+'s loaders simply don't exist in
>  the 1.0 version of the GDI+ DLL.

Are you sure? The sample program from the GDI+ documentation in the
Platform SDK that lists encoders using GetImageDecodersSize() and
GetImageDecoders() works fine for me on XP. The version of the
GdiPlus.dlls I find in the WinSxS folders is 5.1.3102.2180.

I really would love to be able to have the GDI+ loader as a built-in...

--tml