Francis,

Just thought I'd let you know that I took along the latest Windows version of your BBC Micro Image Converter beta to my local Linux User Group last night, and demo'd it running under WINE.

It doesn't run perfect, tho I didn't have much time to investigate - it crashed out when I loaded in a GIF image, but it did manage to convert a PNG of Street Fighter II OK.

Just thought I'd let you know ...

Sam.

That's okay, the latest version doesn't run perfectly on Windows either!

The problems lie in the fact that I have added so much to it and attempted to amalgamate the previous BBC to BMP version of it the code is a bit of a mess. At the moment I'm rewriting it almost from the ground up.

The GIF loading problem specifically may be due to the fact that I am using routines in the Windows OS itself to load the file, whereas PNGs are handled internally within the program.

Kind regards,

Francis.

Indeed. WINE reproduces some (but not yet all) of the Windows libraries, and for some of those it doesn't, it's possible to redistribute the required library with the app - for example, MFC42.dll. If you add this to the PC version of Ravenskull, it will work fine under WINE. I've suggested they include it in the installer, as it's perfectly legal to redistribute it and would make life easier for Linux newbies to get it running.

When you next release a new version, I'll try to remember to send you some feedback on whether things are better (or worse!).

Sam.

I'm trying to run Image2BBC using WINE on Ubuntu Linux.

Most of the program works perfectly (note that I only use .png files), but loading and saving are problematic.

I can only load pictures into it by using drag and drop and I am unable to save any images as the program complains about invalid characters in the path.

Has anyone managed to save images from Image2BBC using WINE on a Linux computer?

I don't get any warnings or errors, but it doesn't save. The version available online is far behind what Francis' is currently working on - his blog on the BMIC wiki page has some fabby screenshots of the latest version running under Mac and Linux. I wouldn't attempt to use the current unofficial build on Linux - either use a Windows VM, or ask Francis nicely for an alpha build of his latest code.

Sam.

I actually get an error dialog box popping up telling me the problem is an illegal character in the path.

I was hoping to get usable builds of the latest code out in time for Byte Back, but that's no longer possible due to some family problems (my wife had a miscarriage).

I've kind of lost my interest/focus for programming at the moment.

Kind regards,

Francis

I've never tested the image converter using Wine, but make sure that you are not using illegal characters such as '*', '/', etc.

Are you using any Unicode characters in your path or filename? The last version I released can't handle Unicode, although the next version will.

Kind regards,

Francis

Francis, you and your partner have my deepest sympathies for your loss.

Sam.

I'm terribly sorry to hear about that Francis. My thoughts go out to you and your wife.

Dave

Thanks guys.

Kind regards,

Francis

Sorry to hear the news Francis. We've been through the same ourselves.

Was looking forward to seeing you at Byte Back. Perhaps next year

Thanks Dave. It's amazing the number of people that have said to us that they have gone through the same thing.

I was looking forward to meeting everyone myself at Byte Back, but I don't think that my wife is really up for travelling that distance at the moment and I wouldn't want to leave her on her own.

Kind regards,

Francis

Not to worry. Dave's getting so excited about this one, I reckon it wouldn't surprise if he had another one in the planning stages before long ...

The layout plans for Byte Back are a work of art themselves ...

Sam.

I've done the blatantly obvious, and what I should have done all along, and put the BBC Micro Image Converter in the WINE c:\Program Files directory.

When the program is run from here, and I save images to the WINE C drive, it all works perfectly.

That means that I don't need to keep dashing next door to use my wife's Windows computer any more. Everything I need to do I can now do from Ubuntu.

Many apologies for wasting everyone's time (again)