PPMTranslator version 1.00
1998-06-12 -- Copyright 1998 Be Incorporated.
<hplus@be.com>

To build and install translator: type "make", then do:
cp obj.[x86|ppc]/PPMTranslator /boot/home/config/add-ons/Translators

The source code in this folder shows you how to build a Translator 
add-on for the Translation Kit for BeOS. The specific Translator 
built reads and writes the PPM portable pix-map format, which is a 
format popular among UNIX image manipulation utilities and some 
researchers because of its simplicity.

Among the more interesting features are the color space conversion 
routines found in colorspace.cpp/.h, which you can use in your own 
programs if you put the Be copyright in your about box, and the 
fact that the Translator is also its own control panel; if you 
double-click it, it will show its own settings view. The latter is 
accomplished by building the Translator as an application that 
also exports the functions necessary for a Translator add-on, and 
putting the application where Translators are found, and a link to 
it in /boot/preferences.

Not all programs work with all color spaces; the higher up in the 
color space popup the color space is, the higher the chance that 
programs will work with it. You'll have to experiment yourself. 
Programs that use BBitmapStream in version R3.1 will not work with 
any of the B_GRAY or B_CMY color spaces, for instance.

The command-line "translate" tool translates from some format you 
have a Translator for to the generic data format, or from the 
generic data format to some format you have a translator for. You 
can NOT translate directly from, say, PPM to TGA using translate, 
instead, you have to do this:

translate -o foo.bits foo.ppm
translate -o foo.tga -t 'tga ' foo.bits

An even more interesting bug is the bug in the TGA, TIFF and BMP 
translators in R3 that prevent them from actually exporting any 
data. TGA and BMP are fixed in R3.1.

A more thorough explanation of the goings-on is found in my Be 
newsletter article for June 24, 1998, which can be found on 
http://www.be.com/developers/

