Hi Graham, Try downloading a binary instead of compiling it yourself.
Schools should not behave like they're the European Central Bank but should just install the software teachers and pupils need. -- Best regards, Mark Schonewille Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer KvK: 50277553 See what you get with only a small contribution. All our LiveCode downloads are listed at http://qery.us/zr On 1 okt 2011, at 19:12, Graham Samuel wrote: > Mark, thanks for your message. I don't think you're going to believe the > depth of my ignorance on this - anything derived from a *nix environment gets > me out of my comfort zone pretty quickly. > > Anyway, out of respect for you and in order to give the thing a fair trial, I > made sure that all my earlier attempts to download and use ImageMagick on my > PC (actually XP on Parallels on a Mac, but never mind), were destroyed, and > started again. > > Firstly, when I look at the ImageMagick download site, I read: > >> If you have any problems, install the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable >> Package (x86) or Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64). 64-bit >> Windows requires both packages (x86 & x64). > > I have no idea what this means but I sure do not want this to be a > requirement on my user, so let's hope I don't have any "problems"! This is > what I mean by "background software", because the last time I tried this I > did actually download some of that stuff, can't remember why. I think this is > also why I thought IM was a resource hog - maybe on its own it isn't. > > I elected to download version 6.7.2Q16 (a .exe file) as this was recommended > on the IM site. > > I also read: > >> The Windows version of ImageMagick is self-installing. Simply click on the >> appropriate version below and it will launch itself and ask you a few >> installation questions. > > Hmm - of course I don't mind a few questions, but what about my poor > geography teacher? Anyway I started to do this and soon came up with the > installer. I had to agree with the licence terms (this is acceptable, even to > the gt) and then got to: > >> While it is not a requirement, we strongly recommend that you install the >> Ghostscript <http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/> package. ImageMagick utilizes >> Ghostscript to render Postscript and PDF files, as well as formats where a >> translator to Postscript is available. ImageMagick also uses the fonts >> delivered with Ghostscript to support the standard set of Adobe Postscript >> fonts like "Helvetica" and "Times Roman". > > Looking at the IM documentation, I realise that without Ghostscript I won't > be able to open any PDFs, so this means I have to have it, even though I am > nervous about the licensing terms for a commercial product (I've written > about this in another message to the list). The IM docs then go on to explain > that if we don't set the parameters correctly so that the resolution IM is > working with corresponds exactly to the original resolution of the images in > the PDF, then the image may look fuzzy or be otherwise unacceptable. There > are no instructions for finding out how to do this, and indeed the IM docs > show a considerable amount of doubt as to how to proceed (see > http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/formats/#ps). I wonder how commercial > packages such as Apple's Preview cope with this? I am worried about the > amount of research needed. > > The rest of the installation requires one to pick options etc. and finally do > do a test to show IM is working. I'm hoping (but I don't know) that all this > can be hidden from my user. > > I got through the installation and ran the test, and it was rather easy! So I > am warming to the idea. > > The next thing is to understand the ImageMagick command syntax. This is not > going to be easy, especially when it comes to limitations etc but I will try. > My aim now is to debug enough command line sequences to prove to myself that > I can do all the things I want to do (format conversions really) and then go > back and see if the installation and licensing issues can be overcome. > > Anyway I hope the above isn't too boring for anyone to read. I will report > back if and when I make more progress. > > Graham > > PS Mark, IMO here in the UK, the reason schools won't install QuickTime is > because their technical advisors regard QT as non-standard. Flash has somehow > got in and is now considered essential, but to many PC users of my > acquaintance (not developers!), QT is considered quite alien. And it does > occasionally demand to be updated, which is disturbing if you're not used to > it. > _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
