
Creator updates
---------------

<2.00 (last release version was 1.42)

removed

2.00

- Performed extensive rewrites. Most of the old functionality is still there,
  but there are a great number of drastic changes and major additions.

2.01

- Bugfix : the ZeriRegister 1.01 module contained a bug that would corrupt the
  registration database on removing an entry. It has been replaced by version
  1.02 which is bugfixed.

3.00

- In addition to conversions to an equal or higher number of colours, Creator
  can now also convert to a lower number of colours, using very fast
  implementations of sophisticated colour quantization and dithering
  algorithms, of which the accuracy is user-selectable, subject to memory
  limitations.
- StrongARM compatibility ensured. Only a minor change to the ZeriLocal module
  was needed.

3.20

- Bugfix : there were problems with conversions to non-8:8:8 pixel types (all
  of them Sprite) resulting in wrong palettes and on some occasions hanging
  code. Fixed.
- Added 'dithering' conversions to all non-8:8:8 pixel types and all 'fixed
  palette' pixel types. All input formats can now be converted to all available
  output formats without exceptions.
- Sprite 8 bpp 4:4:4 format with fixed palette is now available as output
  format.
- There is no more 'R/G/B scaling' option. Internally, the former
  'Discontinuous' scaling is now used throughout, if needed.
- Added option of limiting the number of output image palette colours.
- Changes to JPEG format support :
  - The 'next' wimpslot is now restored after running the external JPEG
    conversion code.
  - Recompiled code with GCC. Reduced source code to bare minimum.
  - Added 'Float DCT' load option.
- Added PNG format support, both read and write.

3.21

- Bugfix : the ZeriBuffer 1.00 module contained a small bug. This would
  occasionally cause corrupt TIFF output. It has been replaced by version 1.01
  which is bugfixed.
- Bugfix : under RISC OS 3.5 onwards, claiming 'overkill' WimpSlots will
  eventually eat up RMA space (probably a RISC OS bug). This affected ZeriArea
  1.00, which has been replaced by a bugfixed version 1.01.

3.22

- Added read support for BMP format.
- Fixed PNG and JPG conversion executables to not barf on '/' anymore.
- Added 'fixed' indication to 'Colours' fields to indicate a fixed palette.

3.30

- Rewritten code from BASIC to C++.
- Some minor changes in the user interface.
- Added BMP format write support.
- Improved BMP format read support.

3.31

- Saving JPEG barfed again on filenames containing '/'. Fixed.

3.32

- Improved TIFF format support. The reader now supports the Predictor tag
  (value 2 only). The writer now uses 'prediction' by default if 12-bit LZW
  compression and '24 bit true' or '8 bit fixed grey' is used. This can be
  disabled by a new save option. It is now also possible to save explicitly
  grey TIFFs (1, 4 and 8 bit). Finally, the basic forms of Group 3 Fax
  compression and Modified Huffman compression are now supported by the reader.
- Added info on TIFF and PNG save options to docs (whoops).

3.40

- Recompiled everything with GCC 2.95.4. Now needs SharedULib module.
- Updated to use the latest library code for decoding and encoding JPEG (now
  based on version 6b) and PNG (now based on libpng 1.2.1 and zlib 1.1.3).
- Bugfix : there was a longstanding bug that could corrupt the last few (bottom
  right) pixels of an image if it used a 'bit-packed' format (if involving, at
  some stage, conversion from byte-wide x bpp to bit-packed x bpp).
- Bugfix : the BMP reader accepted but could not actually perform RLE4
  decompression (only RLE8). RLE4 is now faulted.
- Bugfix : in some cases a buffer overflow (caused by faulty rounding), would
  result in failure to convert an image.
- Improved BMP reader. BMP's produced by Photoshop 6.0 that failed to load are
  accepted now (even though the BMP file does seem to be wrong ...).
- Report windows now show Creator's icon.
- Added Draw file reader. Scaling factors can be specified via load options.
- All settings available via the 'Options' window are now saved in status files
  (the load and save options weren't saved before).
- Entering load or save option values more robust : out of range values are now
  clamped instead of faulted, clicking on an option name (instead of a value in
  its submenu) is now ignored instead of faulted, and entering a non-value when
  a value is expected is now ignored instead of faulted.
- Added 'nag' screens. Registered users get a key that removes the nag screens.

3.41

- Creator used to respond to objects dropped on any of its windows, and the
  iconbar icon. It now only responds to drags to the latter, and the 'Convert
  image' window.
- News flash : GreyEdit, previously part of the Translator, Creator and
  GreyEdit 'combo', has been completely rewritten, and is now freeware.
- Changed 'Status' to 'Choices'. Errors on a choices load no longer reset the
  configuration.

3.45

- Circumvented a bug in Wimp_CreateWindow that causes it to go bonkers if R1
  contains a top-bit-set address.
- Recompiled everything with GCC 3.4.1.
- Fixed possible subtle bug in ZeriConvert.

3.50

- Now prefers/uses standard C++ library functions.
- Lots of other internal changes/rewrites.
- CCITT Fax 3 compressed TIFFs no longer require PhotoMetricInterpretation.



