Name: rlT66838 Date: 01/14/2000


java version "1.3beta"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.3beta-O)
Java(TM) HotSpot Client VM (build 1.3beta-O, mixed mode)


The documentation regarding the new PNG support in the JDK 1.3 is sketchy at
best in the 1.3 beta's docs. I am fairly certain that it includes the feature
that you can use a PNG in a constructor to an ImageIcon. However, the PNG
format, like its predecessor GIF, allows a user defined data block to be
included in an image. The popular Fractal program Fractint for instance uses it
to record into a fractal GIF image some data to allow the GIF to be loaded and
then zoomed into immediately. A future version is planned that will migrate to
PNG because of the damnable Unisys patent.

However, in all the API docs I've looked at for both Swing and Java 2D, I don't
see anything about accessing the user defined data block in PNG files -- or,
for that matter, in GIF files.

Please correct these documentation oversights by making it relatively easy for
a user with the question of how to access the user data segment to quickly
locate the answer. Right now it isn't even clear what *package* the API for
this is in -- java.awt, java.awt.image, javax.swing? The documentation doesn't
even seem to mention the user data segment or how to get it -- I only assume it
can be done because if it can't be, then there's been a major feature
overlooked in the so-called PNG support for the SDK 1.3.

While you're internally reviewing the EOU, I'd like to be told (or pointed to)
how to get at the user data block (preferably treating the block as the source
for an InputStream) and how to write the block (preferably treating the block
as the destination for an OutputStream).
(Review ID: 99980)
======================================================================