Number of colors from paint

Greetings--

We have a need to get more than 256 colors from the output of p.map.
From perusing the source code, it seems this is not possible. I say
that because the buffers dbuf and rbuf in src/paint/Interface/applib/rle.c
are unsigned char pointers. So it would appear that an involved rewrite
of the paint library routines would be necessary for 16- or 24-bit colors,
correct?
--
Duane Wessels <duane@pallas.pnl.gov>
Pacific Northwest Laboratory -- Richland, Washington