Adding new image loader to gdk-pixbuf

[Steffen Gutmann <gutmann ieee org>]

Hello,

I would like to add a new image loader to the gdk-pixbuf library.  If I 
understood the documentation about the gdk-pixbuf module interface 
right, the only way to do this it to write a loadable module that 
contains code for recognizing the image format and reading/writing/etc. 
an image file.  This module then has to be installed into a certain 
directory (normally libdir/gtk-2.0/version/loaders) and a module file 
has to be updated (normally libdir/gtk-2.0/version/loaders).

Is this the only way of adding a new image format?

Of course this solution is nice and code can be shared by other 
applications.  Looking at examples in the gdk-pixbuf source I think I 
can implement this for the image format I am thinking of.  The image 
file format I want to support is IFF/ILMB, a format that was/is used on 
Amiga OS, and is rarely if at all used on other plattforms (but there is 
ilbmtoppm under Unix, so it is not completely unknown).

If there is an API where I can register a new image format to the 
gdk-pixbuf library during runtime of my application then I would prefer 
this way (for now until there is enough request to make the new image 
loader public by including it in the gdk-pixbuf library).  But there 
seems to be no such possibility, at least I haven't found anything in 
the docs and the source of gdk-pixbuf doesn't seem to provide a function 
either.

Any comments welcome,

  Steffen