2010.01.19 19:42 "Re: [Tiff] eta for bigtiff support?", by Bob Friesenhahn

My feeling is that calling BigTIFF a new format will cause more harm than good. Many existing applications will be able to read BigTIFF files by simply building with a newer version of libtiff.

I'm very reluctant to weigh in because I know the issue has been discussed at length in the past, but it should be remembered that thousands of applications don't use libtiff.

If these applications are written correctly, then they should then immediately reject a BigTIFF file as not being a TIFF file. That is why there is not great cause for concern about existing applications. The main concern is for cases where different applications would be usefully selected based on MIME type.

Bob
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Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer, http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/