Date: 2008may2
Q. Can you suggest a programmer-friendly graphics format?
A. Most graphics formats are binary. If you open up a JPEG file,
for example, in a text editor you can see "JFIF" surrounded but a
bunch of noise. But not so with the XPM format! Open up a XPM
file and you'll see:
/* XPM */
static char * roundb_xpm[] = {
/* width height ncolors cpp [x_hot y_hot] */
"13 13 5 2 7 7",
/* colors */
" s none m none c none",
". s topShadowColor m white c lightblue",
"X s iconColor1 m black c black",
"o s bottomShadowColor m black c #646464646464",
"O s selectColor m white c red",
/* pixels */
" ",
" . . . ",
" . . X X X o o ",
" . X X X X X X X o ",
" . X X X X X X X o ",
" . X X X X O X X X X o ",
" . X X X O O O X X X o ",
" . X X X X O X X X X o ",
" . X X X X X X X o ",
" . X X X X X X X o ",
" o o X X X o o ",
" o o o ",
" "
};
(This example is taken from http://www.w3.org/People/danield/xpm_story.html )
It looks like C code and the ball it represents.
Now that's what I call programer-friendly!
Even though its text its not outragously space-inefficent. That's because
it uses a palette.
I'd like it if XBM was used more but its not exactly in fashion.
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