🚀 go-pugleaf

I've been putting together an anonymous ftp site to distribute,
among other things, GIF files of images from JPL's space
missions.  Besides the picture files we would also like to offer
people shareware/freeware GIF viewers for various platforms,
including NeXT.

From Compuserve I had obtained a file called nextgi.Z.  Someone
with a NeXT tells me that this will display GIF87a files ok, but
it produces an error when you try to view a GIF89a file.  (The
difference between the two formats is that GIF89a files have
embedded caption text as a "comment extension block."  All of our
GIF files have these embedded captions.)

I consulted the faq for alt.binaries.pictures.utilities, but it's
not altogether clear what would be a suitable GIF viewer for NeXT
and whether it or they can work with GIF89a files.  One friend
suggested that maybe NeXTs could work with X-Windows viewing
software such as xloadimage or xv.  Since I don't have access to
a NeXT, however, I'm unable to test any of this out.

Can anyone make any recommendations?  (If you need to get your
hands on a GIF89a file you can visit our ftp site,
pubinfo.jpl.nasa.gov (128.149.6.2); the GIFs, all of which are
GIF89a with embedded captions, are in the directory /images.)

Thanks much if anyone can make any comment.

Frank
frank@jplpost.jpl.nasa.gov