map2gif option for gstat

[Barbara Jackson <bjh@ornl.gov>]

Edzer,

I would like to create animated gifs using map2gif and gifmerge
as is described in the gstat home page,
in http://www.frw.ruu.nl/gstat/examples.html:

To create these animations, the map2gif utility was used
(in the gstat 2.0 release), which uses the gd
1.2 gif library from www.boutell.com as API for the creation of gif's.
All gifs of simulated maps were merged into an animated gif
using gifmerge (URL disappeared).


the gstat users manual "5.5 Execute actions" page 51:
the gstat -e map2gif
converts grid map file to gif file. the gif library used to generate
gif's from maps is not distributed as part of the gstat distribution;
see http://www.boutell.com/gd/


so I will have to get the gd software from the boutell site.
but

the www.boutell.com/gd/ page:
HEY! READ THIS! gd 1.7.3 creates PNG images, not GIF images.
This is a good thing. PNG is a more compact
format, and full compression is available. Existing code
will need modification to call gdImagePng instead of gdImageGif.
Please do not ask us to send you the old GIF version of GD.

so the latest GD produces png files, not gif files. and gifmerge
wants to use gif files.
so I assume that I need the gd 1.2 version like you used to create the
gif files from an ascii map. but boutell no longer distributes the
version 1.2.


(I found the gifmerge software in http://the-labs.com/GIFMerge/
I installed it and got it to work on an example for blinking dots.)


1. can you send the gd version 1.2 that will create gif files?
2. is that what I need?
3. what directory in relation to the gstat code does the gd software
have to be?
4. if I can not have the gd version 1.2, is there another way to
create the animated gifs?

thank you,

barbara jackson
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6038
865-574-8680 or 423-574-8680
bjh@ornl.gov