
This directory contains sources for programs to read RLE files and
display them on various sorts of displays.  Since most sites will not
have all the different displays, or we may not have written a "get"
program for your favorite display, this file contains a few words on
rolling your own.

The simplest way to write a "get" program for your display device is
to use rle_getrow to read successive scanlines, and send them to the
display using a "pixel put" routine.  If you need to dither the pixel
values, you can steal the dithering code from getX11.c (or tools/to8.c,
but that code is not as general).  Be sure to be careful about files
with other than straight RGB images.

If your display supports 24 bits of color, and can be written to one
channel at a time, you can use the raw interface and interpret the
opcodes directly into operations on your display.  Some output
buffering usually helps to make this fast.  The program 'gmr27/getfb'
uses this philosophy, but it reads the RLE file directly (it precedes
the 'raw' interface).

If you do write a program for a display device that is not supported
in this distribution, please send it to us, so we can add it to the
distribution, and others will not have to duplicate your hard work.
Similarly, if you are thinking of writing a display driver, you might
send us a note and see if anyone else has already done one.

Spencer W. Thomas
Rod G. Bogart
University of Michigan
July, 1990

spencer@eecs.umich.edu
rgb@caen.engin.umich.edu
