Loading Files
Since each document has a size of either 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 pixels on the side of a square array. A document will best display the files of the same size as the document size. And since the user may want the option of only seeing files of the appropriate size. You will find that there are several ways of finding and loading files, depending upon your needs.
LOAD FILE BOX
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This box contains the buttons to load a file directly into the window you are using. They actually open the same dialog window that "open file" on the "file menu" opens. The settings for that window will have been set to an appropriate default for the window you are working with. You can change your mind, however, and change the settings to open something else and or a new window. |
LOAD FILE FROM FILE MENU
All file types
useable by the program may be loaded from this menu option. The window size
of a new window is also selectable from this dialog. While browsing "Binary
Files" or "Big Files" the size selector will restrict the files
to the selected size, thus permitting you to know the size of the file you are
choosing. "Binary File" or "Big File" is being placed in
a "New Window" the new window will be sized to the size of the selected
file. If an image file or script file is the selected file type, you have the
option of selecting the window size.
DOUBLE CLICK ON A FILE
Double clicking on "Big File" or "Binary File" the action will be the same as the "Open file in new window" menu selection. If the program is not yet running it will be started first. If you double click on a Script file it will be opened in a new document sized to 512 by 512.
DRAGGING FILE ICONS
File Icons can be dragged directly from a Finder window to a main document window or to a scripting window. A Big File or Binary file will be loaded immediately if placed on a document window as will almost any image type. If the file is too large or too small it will be accommodated.
File Icons dragged to the scripting window result in the appearance of an executable icon which will load the file when execution of the script comes to that icon. Script icons themselves may be loaded in this way. Read the section on scripting for more information on this.
The contents of the complex array may be saved as a "Big File" with a 4 byte floats having the file extension ".CoOpF" (for big-endian) or ".CoOpLF" (for little-endian) or as it can be saved as an 8 byte floats having the file extension ".CoOpD" (for big-endian) or ".CoOpLD" (for little-endian) for the real and another for the imaginary part at each pixel. So the 1024 array requires 8 or 16MB for storage ,depending upon wether single or double precision, and the 512 requires 2 or 4 MB etc.
This program was originally written to run on power-pc-CPU's which Apple sourced from IBM and others. Its native format was "big endian", which means that the most significant byte of a multiple-byte-number is stored in the lower byte of the memory holding that number. That is the format this program originally used internally and the format of the big-files saved. Since Apple has switched to intel like chips in which the most significant byte sits higher in memory. This program has always been converting the internal littleendian format to bigendian to store files. This is now changed. You now have the option to save both single and double precision files as little endian. Any of these files have meta-data permitting this program to make the appropriate conversions even if the file is just dropped on the main screen. Since all four file formats are equally readable by the program, the all have the same icon but different file name extensions.
The contents of the screen may be saved as a binary file holding 8 pixels in each byte. So in this case the 1024 screen this requires 128 KB for storage.
The screen may also be saved as a TIFF file using one byte per pixel plus a little overhead or "png" or "jpeg" which are much more compact.
Besides reading "Big Files" and "Binary Files", the program can read many image file formats (TIFF, JPEG, PICT, GIFF, png) and will place the red channel onto the screen as gray scale. The image will be centered and cropped if necessary.
The program also reads simple text files of numbers to create screen filters for example, or to load a sequence of distances into the direct propagation window (scripting) as another example. The text files are loaded and saved by the "CLIP TEXT" icon of the scripting window. The files are saved at ".TEXT" but the icons can read ".txt",".TXT",".cdv",and "CDV" files as well.
The script file format is XML (You don't want to know about it.).
File Type | file extension | |
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Binary File | CoOpB |
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Big File Single Pprecision big endian |
CoOpF |
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Big File Single Precision little endian |
CoOpLF |
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Big File Double Precision big endian |
CoOpD |
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Big File Double Precision little endian |
CoOpLD |
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Script File | CoOpScript |
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Image file | TIFF, png, jpg |