2007.07.09 15:11 "Re: [Tiff] BigTIFF extension", by Toby Thain

> The
> existing proposal is more of a clean break from TIFF

Some people keep saying that, but I totally dissagree. We broke absolutely nothing, except for one single thing (the bitdepth of file offsets), and we broke that one single thing in a totally consistent manner. TIFF minus the particular file offset bitdepth, is still 99.99% of TIFF.

Yes, in a conceptual sense (on paper), it is. I think most of the concerns of the other camp (and really, I'm not fighting for a cause, only talking) relate to practical considerations of the large mass of existing software which is too old to recognise BigTIFF's TIFF-ness.

A person reading the spec can easily conclude "it's just the same as TIFF except for this little detail", but a program is going to reject it outright, of course. Acknowledging the former fact does not give any clues as to how to mitigate the second.

Yes, it's talked to death, and I'm sure everyone will be relieved to accept a diktat.

--T

>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Joris Van Damme