🚀 go-pugleaf

mheath@netspace.net.au (Mark Heath) writes:

> 
> Marcelo Cantos (marcelo@mds.rmit.edu.au) wrote:
> 
> : You could call gnuplot, but that's probably an expensive way to do it,
> : since you would have to go through several stages to get to GIF.  I
> : would suggest looking around for a GIF library for C.
> 
> If you're after a gif package for (in) C check out the netpbm utilities.
> 
> The PPM/PGM/PBM file formats are very simple to write but I dont know of 
> many browsers which grok P[PGB]M.
> 
> At the very least you could pipe your output through ppmtogif (part of 
> the netpbm package)
> 
> Hang on doesn't gnuplot produce ppm files??

Yes, but only gray scale.  I actually have and use netpbm extensively,
but I wouldn't recommend it for dynamic CGI GIF's as it can _really_
slow things down.  This is because netpbm tools are all command line
tools.  You do everything with temp files and pipes.

The real problem, however, is that netpbm doesn't supply drawing tools
as such, only image manipulation.  Sure, you can create a 1-pixel pgm
file and paste it onto another image, but you'll be waiting till the
cows come home to see the result! :-)


Cheers,
Marcelo