2004.09.17 03:08 "Re: [Tiff] BigTIFF Tag Value Count issue", by Chris Cox

There was a time when 640K seemed like a hard limit but that time is long past. Yesterday 4GB seemed like a hard limit but now 64-bit PCs can be purchased for under $1000. In a couple of years, most PCs will come with 4GB of RAM. Years later people may be cursing the inventors of BigTIFF because they only thought about problems based on past experiences and didn't think ahead.

I was just looking for a new PC, and my first requirement was a motherboard that could go over 4 Gig....

My second requirement was an Athlon64.

Option 0: stick with 4 byte tag count members (alignment, tag data <= 4 gig, Frank's choice)
Option 1: make it an 8 byte tag count (no alignment, tag data > 4 gig allowed)
Option 2, courtesy of Bob: make it 8 byte tag count, add 4 padding bytes (alignment, tag data > 4 gig allowed)

Can I put you down as an option 2 vote, or were you merely signalling the option?

Sure, there should always be a second option so put me down for option 2. :-)

Can you think of a situation that needs an 8 byte count? Or do you just want the size increased on general principles?

Do you think that increasing the count to 8 bytes would be a problem in libTIFF?

Chris