recently the company that owns the GIF compression algorithm has started to assert its rights.

Heh! Well in that case they (Unisys) had better hurry and start suing people, because the clock is ticking and the patent is due to expire in six months (June 2003). Funny how things turn out, we were told to burn our GIFs and embrace PNG, and here we are in 2002, and GIFs are just as pervasive as ever. And now it seems that in six months time we won't even have to bother any more. I wonder how long it will take for the meme to die?

Mind you, I like PNGs from an ethical point of view, but they suffer from a big flaw over GIFs: they are bigger. If you want all the functionality the specification has to offer they are indeed très cool, but if you just want to replace GIFs you're worse off in terms of space.

Some more reading material on the GIF patent issue:



print@_{sort keys %_},$/if%_=split//,'= & *a?b:e\f/h^h!j+n,o@o;r$s-t%t#u'

In reply to Re:x2 editing gifs with Perl by grinder
in thread editing gifs with Perl by martymart

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