>
>on 11.12.01 05:01PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>>
>> On Monday, November 12, 2001,I wrote:
>>
>>> Does anyone have a Mac/Win external that I could use to manipulate
>>> graphics
>>> images - rotate, scale, crop - to supplement or replace MetaCard 2.4
>>> built-in functions? MetaCard's implementation introduces very noticeable
>>> distortions, especially with images that have alpha channels.
>>> Unfortunately, my application encourages users
>>> to crop, scale, rotate, and flip the images they import.
>
>to which Mark Talluto replied:
>
>>
>> I am not a big fan of externals as there is always the potential of not
>> having it for the platform you need. Since MC has implemented most of
>> these features, I would write into Scott and discuss what needs to be
>> improved in a future version. I will be using these new image features
>> too in the next few weeks too. If they are not working right as good as
>> they could, maybe something could be done internally to improve them.
>> This would be best for all I believe.
>
>I agree 100%.
>
>Sorry, I ought to have mentioned that I _have_ corresponded with Scott about
>the distortions in the image operations; and I'm confident that they'll
>improve eventually, but my need is immediate and it's not a high priority
>for Scott.
>
Have you considered using java applets? They are prone to all the
problems of java ... slow, differing behaviors with platform-specific
interpreters, etc. ... but could be a temporary fix ("need is
immediate") to buy you some time. They are also cross-platform by
default, platform-specific issues notwithstanding.
My specific need is to use MC as a front end for a medical image
archive of xrays, ct and mri data, etc. Functions such as leveling,
rotating, cropping etc. are essential for viewing these sorts of
images.
In lieu of externals, my current approach is to use MC as front end
for both uploading and viewing images ... data such as patient name,
etc. are written to a webserved database and the image is ftp'ed to
the appropriate location. To view the images, I have MC launch a
browser with a URL that finds images based on the user's search
criteria, such as name, medical record #, etc. This results page is
formatted in such a way that each image is represented by several
hyperlinks corresponding to multiple ways to view the image. You can
view the image "as is" as a regular jpeg in your browser, use a
simple java applet which basically allows you to zoom in and out, or
use the feature-rich ImageJ, a public domain project of the National
Institutes of Health which bills itself as "the world's fastest pure
Java image processing program."
Check it out:
http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/applet2/
Note I have sometimes had problems with it with MRJ 2.2.4 on classic Mac.
This was done in codewarrior and source code is freely available ...
put your tax dollars to work!
Until MC has a feature set as robust as this, I see my approach as a
clunky but acceptable workaround short of writing an external. The
applet approach has the added benefit of increasing utility via
distribution ... clients don't need anything more than a browser to
view images, although they'd need MC to upload and modify them.
Just a thought.
Kevin
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