POPX@vax.oxford.ac.uk (Jocelyn Paine) (05/01/91)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Object oriented PC emulators
Summary:
Expires:
Sender:
Reply-To: popx@vax.ox.ac.uk (Jocelyn Paine)
Followup-To:
Distribution: comp.graphics
Organization: Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, UK.
Keywords:
Does anyone know whether there exist high-level object-oriented
emulators for a PC, that can be controlled by commands from (for
example) a VAX?
When I'm writing an object-animation program on the VAX, I want to be
able to work at the level of calls like
Define object O1 to be a polygon of this shape and form, with a green
background.
...
Define object O99 to be O1 expanded twice, on top of an
O2 rotated 90, over an O75 ...
Move O1 to x,y
Move O83 to x',y'
Move O4 to x'',y''
Define O100 to be a round dial, 3cm radius, blue background,
range -10..10.
Put O100 at x''',y'''
Send value 1.65 to O100.
But as things stand, the only PC emulators I have are Teemtalk and
Emutek, which accept Tek control commands, nothing higher. So the VAX
has to do the work of replacing my calls above by long sequences of Tek
control commands, these being sent to the PC.
It seems sensible to make the PC do more of the work. Why not send it
the high-level calls and let it do the replacement? (The PC is not
overloaded; the VAX is). So the PC emulator would contain a library of
useful objects such as dials and gauges, plus some way to define new
objects, plus code for moving objects and redrawing after them, and so
on.
There are many PC programs that can be controlled in this way from a PC:
but do any exist that can be controlled remotely? I don't even know
whether they'd be known as emulators, or whether there's a special name
for such things. Anyone know?
Jocelyn Paine
Experimental Psychology
Oxford