Re: Message from Mark re: C++

["Werner D. Streidt" <wstreidt@bigfoot.de>]

Hi Mark,

>However, I don't think it's all because of money: I think it's mostly
>because no one has ever put together a message board for sharing code
>snippets. (A primer would be great, too.) The FF discussion group could

I think there were some efforts introduced by Harry for snippets which could
be used in PiCo, but there were no major discussions, too bad.

In the past, we introduced small tutorials and shared ideas about codings.
Just recently, I asked about suggestions for "simulation of
functions/filters", there are some in my FFPG like mirroring or the
algorithms for the layer modes (multiply, difference, etc.).

>be a great place to share C++ code.  (Look, we're already starting to
>see code written for Filter Formula and Filter Meister...why not also
>share C++ code?)
I think one of the major problems people don't program with the SDK is that
you have to learn a lot and understand the SDK. With FiFo or FM, you only
need to learn "simple" C with all the variables you need for filter
creation. You don't need to worry about how the filter calls to the host,
and other things you need to think of as a programmer. You only need to
worry about the real code on how to change your image and that's it. And
that is neat! :-)

>There would be so many advantages to this for everyone in the group. For
>one thing, while it requires some extra tools (CodeWarrior, Borland,
>etc.), you can do so much more writing in C than you can in FF,
>FilterFormula or FilterMeister. You can implement your functions any way

It depends how much money people want to invest - FiFO and FM are a real
bargain for what they can do and as I said much comfortable.

I tried to start programming with the SDK, so I printed it out, I bought the
student version of Visual C++ 4.0. I needed to learn how to program in C, I
never got to C++ and it was all a mess. I was happy to do easy things with
FF and it was great when FiFo and now FM came out! It is still easy for me,
although the functions they present are for real - you can do now
professional commercial filters, you know.

>you want. You can have complete security for your code. You can hook
>your filters into the cool new automation routines in Photoshop 5. You

These are things you have to ask the programmers to put in their to-do
list... ;-)

>can be fully portable. (In my opinion, while I love the idea of Filter
>Formula, a huge oversite is that it doesn't run on a Mac.....I don't
>want to get into a Mac/PC argument here, but you can't forget the Mac
>side if you want to be taken seriously in graphics. Don't believe me:

Well, we've been looking for Mac programmers but there are very few of them
who wanted to be aprt of such a project. Surely, whoever introduced a Mac
FF-successor will certainly have a good market.

>With all the talent apparent in this group, it's amazing to me that no
>one has ever put together an open source C++ implementation for at least
>a few simple plug-ins. (Believe me, it's not that hard to do this kind

Well, why don't you give it a start? ;-) Don't forget that most people here
are lurkers, then there are some freelance plugin programmers, but is there
someone here who is making money with FF, FiFo or FM and living from this?

>One last thing: the world needs more open source code. Take the GIMP,
>for example. You can download the filters. And in most cases--because
>these people are cool--you can also download the source code. This seems
>to me to be one of the greatest things on the web. Check your egos at
>the door: let's start posting source code.
We have posted many filter codes here, if it's that what you mean. One very
bad thing that happened a while ago is that a small amount of persons simply
copy and pasted the filter codes, declared themselves authors and presented
the filters in the net for free download. That is not what we want. We want
to share ideas, codes and all, but some have gotten real cautious with what
they are posting.

Greetings from Germany,

Wern