Thanks again for some good information and food for thought!
* Two of the cited threads contain what is reported as a quote from "Andy" at DxO, regarding Optics Pro 8 (4.5 years ago),
DxO Optics Pro uses Adobe RGB as its internal working color space.
Assuming that was correct--which I don't consider a safe assumption because I have personally received incorrect or at least incomplete responses from DxO before--then I would have been disappointed with that in Optics Pro 8. If Optics Pro 11 has such a limitation, that is inexcusable. It certainly warrants a follow-up with DxO.
* Another cited thread contains information on a test that the poster made 6 years ago, apparently with Optics Pro 7. That is very interesting, but it contains one claim that is at least, by a test I made just now, not correct for Optics Pro 11:
If your input file is jpeg or tiff, DOP works only with sRGB. If you open a file in AdobeRGB it will "assign" (not "convert to") sRGB.
Just now I took a TIFF in Adobe RGB (that had been created from a raw file), opened it in Optics Pro, exported it, and opened both the original Adobe RGB TIFF and the export from the Adobe RGB TIFF in another program. If Optics Pro had assigned (not converted to) sRGB to the Adobe RGB TIFF on opening, the two would have substantially-different color. In fact they both had to my eyes identical color. So my initial conclusion
from my limited test is that (1) DxO has in some respects changed the way Optics Pro manages color between version 7 and version 11 and/or (2) the original post is at least in some respects incorrect.
* What Optics Pro will output:
I don't have the latest version of DXO, only the older version DXO9.... I have not found any option to export the edited RAW file to ProPhotoRGB. The final conversion is sRGB or aRGB choice only, AFAIK.
At least for Optics Pro 11 (I used OP 9, but don't recall the details on this), that is not quite correct. As the screen captures attached / below show, the Export to disk options for "ICC profile" are "Original", "sRGB", "AdobeRGB", and "Custom". I
assume original means 'in whatever color space the camera tagged the raw file' or 'whatever DxO received it in, we won't assign or convert'. But more importantly, under Custom you just navigate to the .icc or .icm file for whatever you want to use. I had downloaded ProPhoto RGB from the ICC website (they call it ROMM), installed it, and created a new Export option for a 16-bit TIFF in ProPhoto RGB.
* As for Jim and the patent: I might have to
try to read that in more detail later. Jim, I know you're an ace on this stuff. On the other hand, no doubt you've heard this before, maybe even set to music, "There's no BM like IBM / There's no BM I know!" (Just joking with you!)