Dear Rob,

Sorry to bother you, but I have a salami enquiry:

1. I have GIFs (labelled e.g. "00634.GIF" in directory 0006), but want to
get the larger images straight off the laserdisk, where all they have is
a number;

2. what should be the operative part of the salami.ph file I have as:

	# GIFURL  the URL prefix where the thumbnails can be found
	GIFURL is /laserdisk/

	# JPEGURL  the URL prefix where the jpeg can be found
	JPEGURL is http://rubens/XLD/

	# NUMBEREDDIRECTORIES  is an ON/OFF switch. If ON, then images which
	#  are numbers e.g.  234.GIF  is found in  IMAGEURL/200/234.GIF
	NUMBEREDDIRECTORIES is ON

	# STRIPFROMMURL is "a string which is removed from URLs for thumbnails etc.
	STRIPFROMURL is http://rubens/XLD/

3. But with this setup, the software gives me the path to the laserdisk images, but
inserts a /subdirectory/ into the path  - absolutely correct for the GIFs on the
hard disk, but not wanted here.

4. If I change "NUMBEREDDIRECTORIES is" to read "GIF" instead of "ON", then the path
to the laserdisk is OK but I lose the link to the GIFs on the HD (or, rather, the
automatic insertion of the /subdirectory/).

All ideas gratefully received!!

Best wishes,

Michael
 
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I can only presume that you want to access both at the same time ?
a small GIF thumbnail and now a large GIF original ?
I thought you pumped out large JPG originals which are of a better quality.
I'll have to look at the source. Connection to Cardiff is lousy at the
moment, so i'll have to do this later.

regards,
rob
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Dear Rob,

Thanks for email. I'm sure you're correct about moving the
goalposts: trouble is, your program is so useful, and I have so
many permutations, that my poor mind can't keep up. What started
as a straightforward exercise has now got fancy, as I keep thinking up
new requirements. 

Your supposition is not quite correct: I always use JPEGs for the big
images, because they pack up smaller on the HD than GIFs, which I always
use for thumbnails because that's what Mosaic etc accept. I think I
have the following requirements for processing:

a. GIF inline thumbnails always on the HD;
b. JPEGs already on the HD, sorted into directories and named numerically;
c. Analog images on laserdisk. These are used for generating both
   (a)
Salami works fine for (a) and (b), but can't handle it when I "go schizoid"
and want GIFs on the HD and analog images left on the laserdisk: it gives
the laserdisk images subdirectories as well! 

At the moment, with small quantities of images (under 10,000), I can
always digitize them and put everything on HD, so there are no
problems. But I've just applied for a laserdisk autochanger which will
store up to 1,000,000 images on 15 platters and, with that, assuming I
get the cash, getting the stuff direct from laserdisk will be essential.

The way I conceive of the code, to accomplish the above flexibility the
instructions for GIF processing will need to be completely separate from
those for JPEG processing (but I might be wrong).

Don't think I'm trying to get you to write extra code for nothing. I
thought I might have been misunderstanding something. If you're too busy,
fine; if you want to run your pencil hot, we can negotiate a bit more cash,
and I'll try and specify better what I need.

The program has certainly got very useful indeed: we're using it here for
several student courses, and the processing is effortless (or will be
when I understand UNIX sorting properly). I suppose what I'm angling for is 
an addition to existing functionality, with existing functions maintained.

All the best.

Michael
 
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