Hi all,

I am responsible for the re-implementation of GIFReadWriter in Pharo from a
few years ago (see this PR
<https://github.com/pharo-project/pharo/pull/1666>). Earlier this week I
was able to successfully port most of that work to Cuis, so I thought I'd
take a stab at Squeak too.

Unlike Pharo and Cuis, however, Squeak already has a class
`AnimatedImageMorph`. I wanted to discuss my proposed changes here for this
reason, prior to submitting any formal changes to the inbox.

So here's what I've done so far:

First, as with Pharo and Cuis, `GIFReadWriter` has been completely
refactored to have a more clear and more complete implementation of the GIF
format. This includes separating out the compression activity into two
helper classes (`LzwGifEncoder` and `LzwGifDecoder`), as well as completely
removing the existing `AnimatedGIFReadWriter` class. I have also added the
`AnimatedImageFrame` class for composing GIF frame information that can be
used by other classes -- both for writing and for displaying.

Second, I have refactored the existing `AnimatedImageMorph` in Squeak to
better deal with displaying real-life animated GIFs. Prior to this, many
GIFs would display incorrectly due to the nature of GIF frame compositing
and disposal. All of the test GIFs I've tried so far (and there have been a
lot) seem to be working well with this class.

Third, I have created an alternative class -- presumptuously named
`BetterAnimatedImageMorph` -- that has some optimizations. The regular
`AnimatedImageMorph` does the GIF frame/form compositing "on the fly,"
which results in a lot of extra computation each time the animation loops.
The upshot here is that we cannot achieve real framerates for some GIFs --
they always play slower in Squeak than they would in a browser regardless
of how low one sets the stepTime/delay. `BetterAnimatedImageMorph` takes a
different approach: it loops through all the GIFReadWriter's read-in frames
and first creates a collection of fully composited Forms. It then simply
changes the current form to be displayed at each step. In my tests this has
resulted in much more performant playback, of which I have provided
examples (see below).

One issue with `BetterAnimatedImageMorph` is that the original information
about the constituent forms of the GIF is "lost". Attempting to write it
back to a GIF file will necessarily result in a larger file than the
original, because most animated GIFs are made of frames that are "diffed"
in a sense. There are a couple of ways to deal with this though, such as
caching the original frame data etc.

My concrete proposals, then, would be the following:
1. Remove AnimatedGIFReadWriter and replace GIFReadWriter with my updated
version (along with helper classes)
2. Replace AnimatedImageMorph with my new BetterAnimatedImageMorph

If you've read this far and have the patience to try it out, I have my
working code up online at
https://gitlab.com/darth-cheney/squeak-animated-gif

Load this code in Squot and check it out.  Try some of the examples in the
FunGIFExamples class (on the class side). In particular, any class method
starting with `example` should be good fun.

For a live comparison of the performance between my
`BetterAnimatedImageMorph` and the current `AnimatedImageMorph`, do
`FunGIFExamples animatedImageMorphComparison` and you should be able to see
the issue right away.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated here, and hopefully we can get this or
something like it into the main image. GIFs are too fun to leave out!

-- 
Eric
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