spencer@eecs.umich.edu (Spencer W. Thomas) (01/30/90)
A colleague of mine, Terry Weymouth, used Burger & Gillies last term in our intro computer graphics class. I'm using it this term. It looks good (I haven't read it cover-to-cover yet). For the class I'm teaching (Interactive Computer Graphics -- the title is right on), it's missing a few things, and covers some topics I won't get to. What it doesn't cover: Interaction techniques (rubberbanding, etc.) and implementation (XOR, double buffer, etc.) Interactive dialog design (the only really good coverage of this I've found is in Foley & VanDam. Newmann & Sproull do a pretty good job, too.) Object-oriented graphics programming (this is such a fundamental way of programming graphics applications, but nobody talks about it.) Bitmap techniques (using raster-ops and bitblt for particular effects). The other stuff I'm going to talk about this term is covered reasonably well: Geometry, transformations, clipping, the pipeline, modeling, line drawing, polygon fill, area fill, and curves & surfaces Also covers other stuff that I normally cover in the 2nd term raster graphics class. Another attribute is that it's not too big -- it doesn't overwhelm the average undergraduate (both in terms of pages & price). Given that I'm also asking them to buy one or more books on X windows, this is not a trivial attribute. Bug me again at the end of the term (1st week of May), and I'll give you my assessment then. I haven't seen the Watt book yet. I'll have to bug my A-W rep. =Spencer (spencer@eecs.umich.edu) -- =Spencer (spencer@eecs.umich.edu)