[colorforth] jpeg decoder

[John Drake <jmdrake_98@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Jack Johnson <fragment@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Dirk Harms-Merbitz wrote:
> > What will you do about Flash? QuickTime? Real?
> > 
> > If people are willing to code for colorForth then
> please
> > do not try to emulate Linux. We already have
> Linux.
> 
> I have to nitpick here.

I hope you don't mind if I nitpick on top of your
nitpick.  :-)

 
> There are a number of CF enthusiasts who would like
> to be able to read 
> various file formats for various reasons.  Some
> excellent examples of 
> needing JPEG encoders/decoders would be interfacing
> with digital 
> cameras, foundation for a Web browser,
> interoperability with legacy 
> systems, etc.
> 
> That's not to say that we all need them -- that they
> should be made part 
> of ColorForth proper-- but there can be value to
> sharing code for things 
> that get repeated often.

Taking this argument to its logical extreme does
ANY graphics file format need to be part of
"ColorForth proper", even one that's newly
invented?  You've listed some applications
where a JPEG decoder would be nice.  But there
are many applications that don't require
graphics at all.  For example, any device
designed for the blind.  In that case speech
synthesis would be vital.  Speech regonition
would be nice.  Any graphics decoder of any
kind would be dead weight.  I think it's
important to keep things modular enough to
add in what you need when you need it.
 
> Something else to consider is that though many of
> these legacy systems 
> come with a lot of baggage, they also come with a
> lot of history.  Sure, 
> we could all roll-our-own audio compression scheme,
> but psychoacoustic 
> compression is extremely efficient and extremely
> difficult to do from 
> scratch.  The ability to read format X doesn't turn
> CF into Linux, it 
> just makes CF that much more useful when looking for
> a solution to a 
> problem.

My thoughts exactly!  It's one thing to come up with
your own graphics format because you have some actual
thoughts on how to do it better.  It's another to
come up with a graphics format just to be different
from Linux.  (And Windows, and Mac, and iTV 4os,
and Oberon, and QNX and every other operating
system on the planet that supports JPEG.)
 
> I mean, come on, you might as well make the argument
> that we shouldn't 
> have a mouse driver because that would make us too
> much like Windows.
> 
> -Jack

I suppose you can put the computer in the mouse
like Jeff Fox.  :-)  (I'm still impressed by that
demo.)

Regards,

John M. Drake



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