IE 6 SP2 Shows Red X for xbitmap Graphic but IE 6 Pre-SP2 Does Not?

[Earl F Glynn]

I saw in the SP2 release notes that OE shows red x's for graphics, but I
cannot find any explanation why the graphics returned by a Perl script show
up as red x's with IE 6 SP2, but they show up just fine with IE 6 prior to
SP2.

On many of my "Computer Lab" web pages I have counters using a Perl script,
such as my main page:
http://www.efg2.com/Lab/

Here's the portion of the Perl script that creates the xbitmap graphic:

print("Content-type: image/x-xbitmap\n\n");
print("#define count_width $nBits\n");
print("#define count_height 16\n");
print("static char count_bits[] = {\n");

for ($i = 0; $i < 16; $i++)
{

for ($j = 0; $j < $nByte; $j++)
{
$val = substr($out, $j, 1) ;
print("0x", substr($digits[$i], $val * 3, 2), ",");
}

}
print("};\n");

This Perl script is a cgi that is invoked with HTML like this:

<img src="http://www.efg2.com/cgi-bin/count.pl?L000Lab">

This has worked nicely for years, so why did Microsoft break this with SP2?
I can go to older machines pre-SP2 and IE 6 displays the xbitmap just fine.
Why does IE 6 SP2 block xbitmaps and display red x's instead? Must I switch
to GIFs now?

Thanks for any help with this.

efg -- Earl F. Glynn, Overland Park, KS USA



efg's Computer Lab: http://www.efg2.com/Lab
Mirror: http://homepages.borland.com/efg2lab/Default.htm

 

[Earl F Glynn]

Why does IE 6 SP2 block xbitmaps and display red x's instead?

After spending hours on the phone with Microsoft technical support they
found a document, which has not been released yet, that suggests xbitmaps
will no longer be supported by IE.

This is still a bit odd, and quite inconsistent since Front Page will still
display XBitmaps.

This is SO frustrating.

efg