I want to read and write Truevision Targa (*.tga) files, but sadly Truevision is no longer publicly publishing SDK's or anything like that. I have a pdf with the file format specs, but after reading them I've discovered, and am discouraged by, the fact that the format is *really* intricate (as with most image formats). I searched CPAN and found the PerlMagick module which is a frontend for the ImageMagick libs. I do have a linux machine, but my image work is done on a Win32 platform.

I have ActiveState on my Winbox, so aside from hunkering down and writing my own .pm to read/write targas, is there any other route or advice anyone can offer? I suppose I could dig for the Targa MSVC++ SDK and write a Dos app to do my conversions (blech), but I barely know MSVC++ when compared to my much-deeper knowledge of Perl.

So, you can see my quandary.

There is more than one way to do it, yes, but all visible directions appear rather grim. Any help?

Thanks-
Shawn Thomas
(P^h) Phaysis