Starting with GIF Server 1.3, NPDS can serve built-in Newton OS bitmap images using the following syntax:
/gif/magic/<newtonscript code>
The NewtonScript code starts with an @ (indicating what is known as a magic pointer) and should not contain parentheses or colons, for security reasons.
A list of the images that are built into Newton OS has been compiled here:
https://falkensweb.com/pages/newton-pictures/
A downloadable archive of these images is available here:
https://newted.org/newtsprism/BinHexer/pictures.hqx
For example, the image used by the Newton to indicate a sent message can be seen here:
http://messagepad.no-ip.org:2200/gif/magic/@779
Another feature of GIF Server is that it can display a counter using the Newton’s built-in “big digit” images.
The syntax is:
/gif/counter/<number>
<number> actually can contain non-digits. Non-digits are replaced with a blank rectangle.
Examples:
http://newton1.applenewton.co.uk:8079/gif/counter/1234567890
http://newton1.applenewton.co.uk:8079/gif/counter/xx1y2z3t4u5v67890
This can be combined with the <COUNTER> SSI (server-side include) tag:
<img src="/gif/counter/<COUNTER>" alt="<COUNTER>">
If the number of digits is note likely to change between page requests, you can add width and height attributes to the HTML so the rendering of the page doesn’t change once the graphics are loaded.
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This document was written by Grant Hutchinson based on release notes by Paul Guyot. Additional input courtesy of Tom Chiverton. Comments are welcome.