History of The GRASP GL Library Format
PCPaint was the first PaintBrush program (as we know it) written for the IBM PC.
The principal author of PCPAINT is John Bridges, who later wrote two other improved versions of PCPAINT (Pictor Paint and GLPaint) and who also wrote and still writes "high end" presentation software starting with GRASP and GLPro and today AfterGRASP.
GRASP uses the GL Library Format to store its presentations.
John Bridges began developing the .GL file format when he worked for an educational software company called CCM in 1982.
When he was writing the library and support tools for CCM's educational software, he created a library format called ".PL" and a library maintenance tool called "PIB". PIB was only for picture file libraries (PLs).
Later, to handle data files, he created library format called ".DL" and a second library tool called "DIB".
CCM's Educational software back then usually shipped as an EXE with a PL and a DL.
By late 1982, in the days before compressed files "caught on" as a means of packaging a group of files, John had created a more general solution which would store any kind of file in a library called a ".ZL" file and a third library tool called "ZIB" to manage these,
John and friends used ZIB for file storage in those pre-internet days to offer groups of files stored in ZLs for download from a modem dial-up Bulletin Board System (BBS) until the early archivers like ARC (and later ZIP, ARJ, LZH, PAK, et al.) caught on with built-in file compression, and storing of file date/time.
When writing GRASP, John renamed ZIB to "GLIB", and the ".ZL" file format was renamed to ".GL", with no code changes.
That original format for ZL (GL) files remained unchanged until after 1994, when John changed publishers, and in 1995 began the development of GLPRO, a complete re-write built on the ashes of GRASP, and 100% upwardly compatible with GRASP.
Shortly thereafter he revised the format to handle long filenames, and then to allow additions to a GL file without rewriting the entire file.
Note: the .OVR files that come with PCPAINT, PICTOR, and GLPAINT are actually GL files named OVR.
Read more about this topic: GRASP GL Library Format
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