Magick++ supports an object model which is inspired by PerlMagick. Magick++ executes faster than PerlMagick since it is accessed from a compiled language rather than from a scripting language. This makes it more suitable for Web CGI programs which must start-up and execute quickly. Images support implicit reference counting so that copy constructors and assignment incur almost no cost. The cost of actually copying an image (if necessary) is done just before modification and this copy is managed automatically by Magick++. De-referenced copies are automatically deleted. The image objects support value (rather than pointer) semantics so it is trivial to support multiple generations of an image in memory at one time.
Magick++ provides integrated support for STL. This support allows Magick++ to be used with the Standard Template Library (STL) so that the powerful containers available (e.g. deque, vector, list, and map) can be used to write programs similar to those possible with PERL & PerlMagick. STL-compatable template versions of ImageMagick's list-style operations are provided so that operations may be performed on multiple images stored in STL containers.
Please be aware that until Magick++ reaches version 1.0, some minor changes may be expected to implemented APIs based on operational experience.
Magick++ sources may be retrieved via remote CVS. Remote CVS is valuable for developers and for those who must maintain the most current sources. Check out files from the CVS server (into subdirectory "Magick++") by performing these steps:
cvs -d ':pserver:anonymous@cvs.simplesystems.org:/cvsroot' login
Provide the password "anonymous" to the " CVS password:" prompt, and then execute
cvs -d ':pserver:anonymous@cvs.simplesystems.org:/cvsroot' co Magick++
to check out the Magick++ files. You may also set your CVSROOT environment variable to ':pserver:anonymous@cvs.simplesystems.org:/cvsroot' prior to executing the commands in order to avoid specifying the -d option.
The CVS repository version of Magick++ does not include the configure script, Makefile.in, or libtool files required to build under Unix. To overcome this, ensure that you have GNU libtool 1.3.4, automake 1.4, and autoconf 2.13 installed and then execute
./bootstrap
in the Magick++ directory prior to continuing with installation.