# Compression schemes in the XIE headers Two different XIE lineages are vendored here, and they do **not** define the same set. The terminal speaks the first one. ## DEC XIE 2.3 — what the VT1200's server implements `docs/dec/xie23/include/dec/extensions/XieAppl.h:151-157` — the complete set, five values, nothing else: ```c /* ** Compression Schemes */ #define XieK_PCM 0 /* uncompressed */ #define XieK_G31D 1 /* CCITT Group 3, one-dimensional */ #define XieK_G32D 2 /* CCITT Group 3, two-dimensional */ #define XieK_G42D 3 /* CCITT Group 4 */ #define XieK_DCT 4 /* JPEG - 2D discrete cosine transform */ ``` `XieK_DCT` is the JPEG scheme: the man page says of the `cmpprm` argument that it "specifies a parameter required **for the DCT compression scheme**" (`man/XieGetImage.3X:56`, `man/XieSetStream.3X:68`). There is no `XieK_JPEG` and no TIFF/RLE/LZW/PackBits constant anywhere in the 2.3 headers. The scheme travels in the SetTransport request as a byte plus a parameter word (`XieProto.h:538-548`): ```c typedef struct { ... CARD32 compression_parameter; CARD8 compression_scheme; CARD8 mode; ... ``` ## What the DEC 2.3 server actually accepts `server/xie/XieTransport.c`, `ProcSetTransport` (line 616 onward) validates the scheme per image: ```c switch( stuff->compression_scheme ) { /* verify compression_scheme */ case XieK_PCM : break; case XieK_G31D : case XieK_G32D : case XieK_G42D : MatchOkIf_( IsBitonal_(img) && stuff->mode != XieK_Tile, ...); case XieK_DCT : MatchOkIf_(!IsBitonal_(img) && stuff->mode != XieK_Tile && org != XieK_BitByPlane, ...); default: BadValue_(stuff->photo_id); } ``` So, concretely: * **PCM** — always allowed. * **G31D / G32D / G42D** — require a **bitonal** image and a mode other than `XieK_Tile` (i.e. PutStream/GetStream, not PutTile/Tile). * **DCT (JPEG)** — requires a **non-bitonal** image, a mode other than `XieK_Tile`, and a component organization other than `XieK_BitByPlane`. * Anything else — `BadValue`. In the transport *implementation* (`ProcGetStream`, line 275 onward) only three schemes are real, and two are stubs: ```c case XieK_DCT : ... s = DdxEncodeDct_( &Udp_(img,p), ... ); break; case XieK_G42D : ... s = DdxEncodeG4_( Udp_(img,p), ... ); break; case XieK_PCM : ... break; case XieK_G31D : /* not yet supported */ case XieK_G32D : /* not yet supported */ default : s = BadValue; ``` Same stub pair in `ProcSetStream` (line 1460). The DCT and G4 work is delegated to the DDX hooks `DdxEncodeDct_` / `DdxEncodeG4_` — i.e. to the image accelerator on the board, which is why the firmware's DDX render path reports `DDX_RENDER: unsupported compression scheme` when it cannot service one. **This is why our working client must use `XieK_PCM`.** It sends a bitonal 64x64 photomap in `mode = XieK_Tile`, and under the rules above that combination admits PCM only — G3/G4 are refused for Tile mode, and DCT is refused for a bitonal image. Requesting anything else returns `BadValue`, which is the `BadValue (integer parameter out of range)` seen in the early runs; `BadMatch` has the same origin, since these are `MatchOkIf_` checks. ## X Consortium X11R6.1 — a different, larger list `xc/include/extensions/XIE.h:175-206` (the `xieperf` lineage, not what the VT1200 runs) uses DecodeTechnique / EncodeTechnique enums with ten codecs: | constant | value | meaning | |---|---|---| | `xieValDecodeUncompressedSingle` | 2 | bitonal & grayscale | | `xieValDecodeUncompressedTriple` | 3 | colour | | `xieValDecodeG31D` | 4 | FAX | | `xieValDecodeG32D` | 6 | FAX | | `xieValDecodeG42D` | 8 | FAX | | `xieValDecodeJPEGBaseline` | 10 | grayscale & colour | | `xieValDecodeJPEGLossless` | 12 | grayscale & colour | | `xieValDecodeTIFF2` | 14 | TIFF modified G31D | | `xieValDecodeTIFFPackBits` | 16 | TIFF Apple format | So JPEG appears in **both** lineages — as `XieK_DCT` (2.3, one value) and as JPEG baseline/lossless (X11R6.1, two values) — but the 2.3 protocol that the terminal speaks has only the single Scheme-4 DCT code, with no baseline/lossless split and no lossless predictor field in the wire struct. ## What THIS ROM actually does (measured, not inferred) Two probes were built for this (`xiescheme.c` via libXie, and `xie_schemes_raw.py` which speaks the wire protocol directly): ### 1. At SetTransport (minor 20), raw request, fresh bitonal photomap each time ``` PCM SetTransport -> ACCEPTED G31D SetTransport -> ACCEPTED G32D SetTransport -> ACCEPTED G42D SetTransport -> ACCEPTED DCT SetTransport -> REFUSED ERROR code=14 (BadIDChoice) minor_op=20 5 SetTransport -> REFUSED ERROR code=14 (BadIDChoice) minor_op=20 ``` So **DCT is answered exactly like an out-of-range scheme value.** Note this is also evidence that the ROM does *not* implement the reference server's `IsBitonal_` rules: G42D is accepted even on a 256-level photomap, where `XieTransport.c` would answer BadMatch. ### 2. At Export (minor 21), with the photomap's compression byte forced The client's `XieExport` to a depth-1 pixmap, for each value of the photomap's `compression_scheme` byte (`harness/mame/xie_fix.lua` pokes it at file `0x1B256`; the server never initialises it, so it holds the heap fill `0x55`): ``` scheme 0 PCM export: pixmap 4096/4096 no X error scheme 1 G31D export: pixmap 4096/4096 no X error scheme 2 G32D export: pixmap 4096/4096 no X error scheme 3 G42D export: pixmap 4096/4096 no X error scheme 4 DCT export: FAILED BadValue, minor 21 scheme 5 (bogus) export: FAILED BadValue, minor 21 ``` **DCT and a bogus value are treated identically; 0..3 are accepted.** So in this ROM the valid set is `0..3` and scheme 4 has no implementation — it is refused, not silently mis-decoded. ### 3. The ROM has no JPEG machinery Searched `vt1200_v22.bin` (md5 `b46a3e442ccb86134d2356bd70d22fd2`): * no `JPEG` / `DCT` string (the only compression-related strings are `DDX_RENDER: unsupported compression scheme`, `error initializing scalution` and `5 - Scalution Test`); * the standard JPEG Annex K quantisation table is **absent**, in both the zigzag order code stores and the natural row order — and no flat 8x8 table either. A DCT codec carries one of these; this ROM carries none. `DDX_RENDER: unsupported compression scheme` exists but did **not** fire in any of the runs above (0 occurrences in the MAME debug log for schemes 4 and 5), so it belongs to a path these probes do not reach — reported as an open detail rather than claimed as the explanation. ### 4. Cross-check: PCM is the only scheme that helps in practice The working display path uses `XieK_PCM` throughout, because the transport is `XieK_Tile` on a bitonal image and, per the reference rules above, that admits PCM only. On a depth-1 server there is no non-bitonal visual, so `XieK_DCT` is unreachable by protocol rule as well as unimplemented. ## Cross-reference: the DTJ article `docs/dec/DTJ-1991-v03-04-bitonal-image-accelerators.pdf` — "Hardware Accelerators for Bitonal Image Processing" (Payson, Cianciolo, Crouse, Winsor; DTJ Vol. 3 No. 4, Fall 1991). Reading it against the headers above: * The accelerator ASIC it describes is **bitonal** and is a CCITT decoder: "The decompressor chip acts as a CCITT binary image decoder", converting Huffman codes to fixed-length codes, and it covers G3-1D, G3-2D and G4-2D. The chip set is decompressor + scaler (M:N, 1..127) + rotator — the "scalution" hardware the firmware drives. * JPEG is discussed in the **continuous-tone** section of the same article, not as part of that ASIC: "for gray-scale and color images, the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) standard"; "the JPEG compression method is based on the two-dimensional (2D) discrete cosine transform (DCT)". For hardware it cites C-Cube's **CL550-10 JPEG Image Compression Processor**, not the bitonal chip. * The DECimage 1200 terminal (the image-capable sibling of this unit) is described as using this hardware: "The DECimage 1200 can read, transport, decompress, scale, and display an 8.5-by-11-inch bitonal document in 1 to 2 seconds." So the article's "image board" is the bitonal G3/G4 decompressor, and JPEG/DCT is the scheme XIE defines for the continuous-tone data type that the same protocol carries — the two correspond exactly to `XieK_G42D` and `XieK_DCT`. This is consistent with the measurement above: the ROM has the G3/G4 half (`0..3` accepted, scalution test present) and no DCT half (scheme 4 refused, no JPEG tables). The terminal is depth 1, so the continuous-tone data type the DCT scheme exists for has no visual to land on.