Gif's A Delphi Headache

[vacunita]

Just a little something to think about.
Does anybody know why Borland has neglected to add Support for Gif pictures to its very cool programming language.

Just Wondering, since i haven't found a way of loading a gif file into a TImage component.

 

[TBaz]

I suppose it depends on which version of Delphi you are using.

I'm using Delphi 5 and the TImage component supports GIF images.

Barrie

 

[TBaz]

Oops - no edit!

Just realised that a long time ago, I installed a component which added GIF capabilities to TImage, so ignore my last post.

There might be a licensing issue maybe?...

Anyway, there are plenty of free components on the web that will do the job.

Barrie

 

[vacunita]

Yeah I know there are alot of free component out there, I was just wondering Why Borland hasn't added that particular support.

Ohh by the way I'm Using Delphi7. Thats why I am so surprised. since VB has had the ability for a long time.

 

[TBaz]

Here you go!

http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw/

It was a licensing issue. GIF's use a compression algorithm called LZW which was patented by Unisys and all software which supports GIFs should legally have a license to do so.

As you can see, MS bought a license, so VB can support it.

Borland I assume thought it not worth bothering with. It's a similar issue to the JPG/PNG one.

BC

 

[TBaz]

Actually, having read that doc properly, it seems that even though VB has GIF support, you are breaking the law using it if you don't buy a license.

Another good reason for Borland not to bother...

BC

 

[DaZZleD]

Yep.. Gif is no longer free, like Jpeg or PNG.

 

[vacunita]

Well you learn something every day dontcha... Better remove the Gif images from my VB apps hahahaha.