MIDAS> Patch for 24-bit and 16-bit video

[Craig Markwardt <craigm@cow.physics.wisc.edu>]

Greetings MIDAS users--

I am pleased to make a patch available for ESO MIDAS 99NOVpl2.2 and
98NOVpl2.2, which permits 24-bit and 16-bit displays to work properly.
While the official MIDAS does work on many 24-bit color displays for
Unix, it does not work on many 24-bit adapters available for PCs with
Linux, and on none of the 16-bit graphics modes.

This patch should remedy the situation.  I have tested it on Intel
Linux and Alpha OSF, 16-bit and 24-bit, so-called RGB and "emulated"
pseudo, and screen and postscript outputs.  Please be aware that the
color table does not work the same way as it does under 8-bit
pseudocolor.  You need to reload your image for the color table to
take effect.

A complete source patch, and precompiled binaries for Intel Linux and
Alpha OSF, can be found at the following web page:

  http://cow.physics.wisc.edu/~craigm/midas.html

I would be interested in further responses from people with big-endian
machines (eg Sun).  For both screen and postscript outputs, the most
important thing to check for is that red and blue colors are correct,
so be sure to load a LUT with both of these colors present.

If the binaries don't work for you, please consider trying to compile
the source code.  I have also submitted the code to ESO.

Please CC me in your replies, since I am not on the midas-users list.

Enjoy!
Craig

P.S. Sorry if you receive this message more than once.  I attempted to
include individual users from the midas-users archive who reported
this problem.