BigTIFF & libtiff library version

[Benjamin Gilbert]

On 06/18/2012 04:49 AM, Yves Sucaet wrote:
>> If you want bigtiff functionality, please use libtiff 4.0 (or greater).
>> Don't bother with the old/experimental version from _bigtiff.org_
>> <http://bigtiff.org/>.
> Out of curiosity: Why isn't OpenSlide already using this new version
> already?

Hi Yves,

If I'm understanding your question correctly: OpenSlide uses an external 
library to parse TIFF files, it doesn't do the parsing itself.  So, 
whether or not OpenSlide supports BigTIFF depends entirely on what 
libtiff you link it with.

(libtiff does have its problems.  We have been tempted to drop it in 
favor of a homegrown solution, and may still do so in the future.  At 
the very least, we will need a custom TIFF parser to support NDPI, which 
is the reason for the (currently unused) openslide-tiffdump.c in the 
source tree.)

--Benjamin Gilbert