Animation Gadget - last update Dec30 2013

[netmaestro]

Thanks for the kind words New update today, it works on all 3 platforms now. Just take your time when clicking through the tree on Mac for now.

[Kwai chang caine]

I dreamed the solution. I'm not lying to you, that's exactly what happened.

KCC also want to dream like master of the net
Me...when i dream it's most like this


My empire for just a dream of NETMAESTRO

[netmaestro]

New update today. Much work has been done on the decoder as I was never happy with the level of
efficiency I was attaining with my code written the way it was. It is my custom when tackling a
difficult project to begin with the simplest and easiest-to-understand ways of approaching the
various parts of it and then when it's working well, go back and optimize. That's what today's
update is about. I had been keeping the full "strings" (they weren't really strings) in the
dictionary and writing them to the output stream when called for, but there isn't any reason for
that to be necessary. I had read the concepts found here:
http://warp.povusers.org/EfficientLZW/part5.html

The index value points to a string in the dictionary. However, as we remember, the
"string" in the dictionary only consists of the last byte of the string and an index to the
prefix for that string. Likewise the "string" at that prefix index only contains the last byte
and an index to the rest of the prefix.

early on in the process but that approach is a bit more difficult to understand and implement
(for me) than straight dictionary storage so I left it off until things were pretty much running
reliably.

Anyway, the result of today's update is a significant speed gain (approx. 2.5x) and cleaner, more
efficient code overall. I hope it will continue to work everywhere, as I don't see anything I've
done that would affect that. If there are issues though, please let me know.

[davido]

Works fine here. Thanks, again.

Impressive speed increase!

Crashes, if no gifs in folder. Apologies for the nitpick.

[netmaestro]

Update today, details in first post.

[netmaestro]

New update today, details in first post.

[davido]

Thank you for the updates.
Version 1.00 crashes on my system.
However, version 1.03 (BrowseGifs_1) is fine - no problem.
I had problem with the 'paste' version (BrowseGifs_2) as the pasted gif did not run - just left a blank window.

Would 'drag/drop' be possible?

[netmaestro]

There could be a few reasons for a blank window. One, the file might not actually be a .gif. In this case it won't play. Two, the file could be one that ReceiveHttpFile fails on, I found a couple of those. And three, anything copied from your filesystem as ReceiveHttpFile won't get them. If a file is a) on the web and b) an actual .gif and c) ReceiveHttpFile can download it then it should play on the window without problems. It does here anyway. The program could be modified easily enough to also accept pastes from the filesystem, it' just that this version hasn't got that. Also drag&drop is no problem to implement, maybe I'll make some additions to the second test program.

[netmaestro]

Sample #2 is updated to accept dropped gifs from your filesystem. Just drag them to the window, let go and they play.

[davido]

The gif I tried was your Avatar!? So I assume it should have worked. Also tried it on a few machines so it must be my problem, sorry.

Thank you for the update to #2, it works fine. I'm used to simply dragging files off of Chrome screens.
A most unexpected and very rapid response.
Wishing you a happy New Year.

[netmaestro]

Good, I'm glad it works for you. To summarize:

From the web: copy/paste only, drag-drop won't work
From your filesystem: drag-drop only, copy/paste won't work

[walbus]

Great,
many thanks !!!

[UUICEO]

The DL link dead?

[netmaestro]

I apologize for the dead link. I'm moving my site to a new host and the changes are taking longer than usual to propagate through the internet. I have a temporary address that should work in the meantime:

http://zeus.canspace.ca/~lloydspl/GifDecoder.zip

[coco2]

Replying so I can look at this tonight