arnold@ux.cs.man.ac.uk (Toby Howard) (05/12/89)
GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphU
raphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK
aphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK G
phUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK Gr
hUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK GraphUK Gra
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Source: Computer Graphics Unit, University of Manchester
Articles to GraphUK@uk.ac.man.cs.cgu
Administration to GraphUK-request@uk.ac.man.cs.cgu
U.S. Distribution: mcconell@dssdev.dec.com or
decwrl!dssdev.dec.com!mcconnell
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Issue number: 21 11-MAY-1989
8 articles today...
Distribution (The editors)
Nag from C (forwarded from `The Pixel') (NAGADHB@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK)
1990 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics: Call for Participation
(zyda@trouble.cs.nps.navy.mil)
Format list (for Graphuk) (Toby)
Update on standards (C.Cartledge)
image processing for VMS (CBS%UK.AC.ULCC.NOC::UNINETT.HSR::jensen)
Image and Imaging Standards Work (C.Cartledge)
References for 2-D graphics (Paul Hudson)
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From: The editors
Subject: Distribution
Some of you may have received two copies or issue 20, and some of you 0 copies!
Please accept our apologies. I'll get the hang of electronic mail one day(wth).
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From: NAGADHB@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK
Subject: Nag from C (forwarded from `The Pixel')
NAG has indeed produced a set of C header files to facilitate the
linking of the Mark 13 Fortran Library into C programs (as reported by
Kate Crennell last week). Users of a standard C compiler will also
benefit from an argument checking capability. Coverage may also be
extended to include NAG graphical products.
The price has yet to be finalised as NAG considers the costs involved.
Early indications suggest it may be in the range 60 - 120 pounds.
Please contact David Sayers at NAG (DAVID@UK.CO.NAG.VAX) for further
details as they become available.
(A C version of the NAG/SERC Image Processing Algorithms Library
(IPAL) is also being developed as a separate project. This will be a
full C language product, and should be released next year.)
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From: zyda@trouble.cs.nps.navy.mil
Subject: 1990 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics: Call for Participation
Call for Participation
1990 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics
Sponsorship anticipated from the following organizations:
Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation
USA Ballisic Research Laboratory
Ardent Computer, ATT Pixel Machines
Digital Equipment Corporation, Evans & Sutherland, Hewlett-Packard
NeXT, Pixar Silicon Graphics, Stellar Computer, Sun Microsystems
Symposium Specifics Important Dates
18th - 21st of March 1990 Abstracts for contributed papers due: 15 Sep. 89
Snowbird, Utah USA Acceptance notification: 31 Oct. 89
(Proceedings at the symposium.) Final papers for proceedings due: 10 Dec. 89
The focus of the symposium is on the topic: Where is the frontier today in
real-time, interactive 3D graphics ?
The purpose of the symposium is to look at what research groups are doing with
their high-performance, real-time, interactive graphics systems, to find out
what special purpose architectures are on the drawing board, to discuss which
are the most user-friendly paradigms for interaction with such systems and to
learn what applications are still waiting for an appropriate 3D interactive
system.
The symposium will consist of technical sessions in which formal papers are
presented and discussed and of hands-on demonstrations where research groups
and vendors of equipment demonstrate the state-of-the-art in this field.
In these demonstrations, we want to look at displays on which objects move and
with which one can interact. We are particularly interested in such notions as:
-- moving through virtual worlds, i.e. visual simulation systems that move us
through buildings or cities, over terrain or over the sea at multiple updates
per second;
-- interactively shaping, building or sculpting objects, using low-level
operations to drill holes or cut slots as well as high-level operations making
global shape adjustments;
-- interactively assembling and manipulating systems of parts, using aids that
yield ease of operation without sacrificing precision and give feedback as to
real-world geometric constraints;
-- interaction technologies and user interfaces for moving through 3D
virtual worlds.
The technical presentations at the symposium will focus on
innovative 3D graphics architectures and hardware, fast rendering algorithms,
new man-machine interface paradigms. Performance claims should be supported
by actual measurements of values such as polygons per second or updates
per second. Full explanations of any special techniques necessary to achieve
such real-time picture generation and display should be provided.
In addition, we want to discuss the real-time graphics requirements of special
applications that do not yet have satisfactory solutions, along with
recommendations for new architectures or future hardware additions to existing
graphics systems.
Symposium Chair
Michael J. Zyda
Naval Postgraduate School
Program Co-Chairs
Rich Riesenfeld Carlo Sequin
U. of Utah U. C. Berkeley
Paper Submissions and Requests for Registration
Prospective authors should submit 5 copies of an extended abstract to the
Symposium Coordinator's address below before the 15th of September 1989.
The abstracts should be 3 to 5 pages long and reflect what will be
contained in the final 8 to 12 page paper in the proceedings and in the
25 minute presentation at the symposium. Abstracts should clearly state
what has been achieved and how this makes a contribution to the advancement
of the state-of-the-art in interactive 3D graphics. Requests for
registration forms should also be sent to the Coordinator.
Rich Riesenfeld, Coordinator
1990 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics
University of Utah
Department of Computer Science
3190 Merrill Engineering Building
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
(801) 581-8224
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From: Toby
Subject: Format list (for Graphuk)
A short while ago I requested information on graphics formats to try and
make sense of them all. Wow! Seems a lot of people wanted to know too!
What follows is a rough attempt at this, with *MUCH* missing. Please send
me your comments/amendments/more info. Thanks to everyone who's helped in
this so far.
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Toby Howard Computer Science Department, University of Manchester, U.K.
Lecturer janet: toby@uk.ac.man.cs.p1
internet: toby%p1.cs.man.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
earn/bitnet: toby%uk.ac.man.cs.p1@UKACRL
uucp: ...!ukc!mup1!toby voice: +44 61-275-6274
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Here we go....
First the ones which seem to be the most popular:
CGM - International Standard (IS 8632); Computer Graphics Metafile. Used in
transfer of picture type files (flat vector data).
[Editors: See Chris Cartledge's article below for source]
CCITT - this is a common raster format, commonly known
as the facsimile coding scheme for Group 3 and 4 facsimile
apparatus. CCITT stands for Committe Consultatif International
de Telegraphique et Telephonique (or in english, International
Consultative Committee on Telegraphy and Telephony). The United
States Department of Defense has mandated with Military Standards
(MIL-STD-1840A and MIL-STD-28000) that this is the data
interchange requirements for raster data.
GIF - 'GIF' (tm) is CompuServe's standard for defining generalized color
raster images. This 'Graphics Interchange Format' (tm) allows
high-quality, high-resolution graphics to be displayed on a
variety of graphics hardware and is intended as an exchange and
display mechanism for graphics images.
IGES - ANSI standard Y14.26M, defines a neutral file format and
a standard set of entities which are used to transfer and
store product definition data created by computer aided
design and engineering systems. Contains object information
and can be 2 or 3 D images.
NFF - ASCII scene description encoding, for the Standard Procedural
Database
PCX - PC Paintbrush
PBM - Format used by the Portable Bitmap Manipulation package
(Jeff Poskanzer). This is a collection of programs for manipulating
raster images and converting between many different formats.
SUN raster - has magic number for identification, multiple
types identified in the header, 1-24 bit depth images
and colour maps may be present. See rasterfile.h on a Sun.
TIFF - Tag Image File Format. Created by Microsoft/Aldus.
XBM - X bitmap
----------------------------------------------------
Summary List
------------
The following is excerpted from a document prepared by Keith Graham, the
author of a popular P/D software package called "Optiks". Optiks is more or
less a "graphics spreadsheet" concept, in that it can read in many formats,
and export quite a few. The document contains a listing of many graphics
formats, primarily those that are most commonly found on PC's. The
following is a partial list of the many graphics formats that are
available. Keith Graham started the list, and H. F. Van Brink added to it.
I have added a few more.
art PFS First Publisher Clip Art
art Ashton-Tate Byline Clipart
bas Basic Bload/Bsave (also basic programs)
bsg FONTASY (same as RAW)
ca NewsRoom Pro
ccitt Facsimile coding
cgm Computer Graphics Metafile
cut Dr Halo, Cut files
dat PrintShop
dcx Panasonic Fax PCX libraries
dd CBM Doodle
dhp Dr Halo
drw Freelance
drw MicroGrafx
drw NBI Legend
dxf AutoCad
eps Encapsulated Post Script
ev NCN Execuvision
fbm Fuzzy Bitmap Manipulation
fg Slidewrite Plus
gal Gallery on Exhibit, Graphics Gallery
gem GEM Draw
gmf Computer Graphics Metafile - Various Venders
gif Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format
gx1 PC PaintBrush
hips Heritable Image Processing System
hpc Hewlett Packard's LaserJet Graphics
hpg Hewlett Packard Graphics Language
iff Amiga Interchange Format File
iges CAD format
img DataCopy Wips
img GEM Paint
img IBM Image support Facility
img Boeing Graph
img ISI format
lbm DELUXE Paint II
mac Apple Macintosh Macpaint
mak Apple Macintosh Macpaint, No Header
msp Microsoft Windows Paint
nff Neutral File Format (Standard procedural database)
p Ashton-Tate Draw Applause
pbm Poskanzer Bitmap Manipulation
pcr OPTIKS/PCRGB
pcx PC PaintBrush
pda Palantir Scanner Graphics Files
pga IBM Professional Graphics Adaptor image file
pi1 Atari Degas uncompressed images
pic Lotus
pic Mouse systems PC Paint
pict Apple graphics format
pig Ricoh Pixel Image Generator file
prn PostScript, Any print image file
ras Show file Ras format
raw Basic Array format (OPTIKS reference only)
rle Compuserve, Teletext Run Length Encoded
sld AutoCad Slide
sfl Soft Font Single Letter
sfp HP Soft Font
shp Printmaster, Newsmaster
sun Sun rasterfile
tiff Aldus/Microsoft Tag Image Format Files
utah Utah Raster Toolkit format
wpg Word Perfect Graphics 5.0
xbm X Bitmap Format
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From: C.Cartledge
Subject: Update on standards
Update on standards
-------------------
This is designed to tell you the the state of current British and
International work that is completed. It covers only work completed or
likely to complete this year (1989). There is a lot more following on!
Contact Chris Cartledge (JANET C.Cartledge@shef.pe) if you want to get
involved in the technical work of graphics standardization.
Copies of standards are ordered from BSI. Note that the ISO copies
themselves are *very* expensive whereas the BSI ones (which only differ
in title and page numbering) are much cheaper. If your organisation is
a subscribing member of BSI the the documents can be obtained at a
substantial discount by quoting your membership number. As you can see,
in the following list I have given up trying to be exact about the name,
the BS being different from ISO(/IEC).
Ordering information can be obtained from:
BSI Standards
or in the case of drafts: Sales Administration (Drafts), BSI
Milton Keynes Telex: 825777 BSIMK G
Linford Wood Fax: 0908 320856
MK14 6LE Tel: 0908 220022
BS 6390 : 1955
ISO 7942 : 1985
Graphical Kernel System (GKS) Functional Description
The well known standard. Work is nearly complete to add a standardised
GKS metafile along the lines of the CGM and the final draft is available
as Draft Ammendment to BS 6390 (document 89/60347).
BS 7040 : Part 1 : 1989
ISO 8651-1 : 1988
GKS language bindings - Part 1: FORTRAN
BS 7040 : Part 2 : 1989
ISO 8651-2 : 1988
GKS language bindings - Part 1: Pascal
Language bindings to the well known standard. The C binding awaits ISO
C which will be the same as ANSI C (surely!). The draft is as stable as
C itself and will almost certainly be published as a draft BS this year.
The Ada binding (part 4) is in publication and the ISO version
(expensive) is probably already available.
BS 6945 : Part 1 : 1988
ISO 8632-1 : 1987, Computer Graphics: metafile for the storage and
transfer of picture description information (CGM) - Part 1. Functional
specfication
BS 6945 : Part 2 : 1988
ISO 8632-2 : 1987, CGM Character encoding
BS 6945 : Part 3 : 1988
ISO 8632-3 : 1987, CGM Binary Encoding
BS 6945 : Part 4 : 1988
ISO 8632-4 : 1987, CGM Clear Text Encoding
The CGM is being ammended to include GKS support, while retaining the
static picture concept. There are (inevitably) four documents which
describe the changes (in terms of the ISO and not the BS page numbers!).
The updates are Draft Amendment to BS 6945 Parts 1 to 4 with document
numbers 89/60348 to 51.
ISO 8805 : 1988, GKS-3D Functional Description
ISO/IEC 9592: 1988(E) : Part 1, PHIGS Functional Description
ISO/IEC 9592: 1988(E) : Part 2, PHIGS Archive file format
ISO/IEC 9592: 1988(E) : Part 3, PHIGS Archive file clear text encoding
The BS's of all the above are in the process of publication and the
(expensive) ISO versions should be available now. The outcome of the
final round of comment on these standards was to align them more
closely. Indeed a programmer making a transition from GKS to GKS-3D to
PHIGS would have no more new concepts to learn than a programmer taking
the large step from GKS straight to PHIGS.
DIS 8806-1, GKS-3D language bindings: FORTRAN
Available as a Draft British Standard, document 88/65655
ISO 8806-3, GKS-3D language bindings: Ada
In publication.
The final text PHIGS Fortran has been agreed but it has yet to be
delivered. The other binding expected to be completed this year is
GKS-3D Fortran. The C bindings are believed to be stable (as stable as
C) and will almost certainly be published as draft BS's this year.
ISO Technical Report 9973 (2) : 1988 Procedures for the Registration of
Graphical Items
As those familiar with our standards will know we could not agree on
everything possible is computer graphics so we left areas of the
standards to be agreed at a later - registered. For example, very soon
there will be a defined value in GKS for dash dot dot lines as there
already is in CGM, and once your implementor implements it you can use
it. The procedures say how things can be added to the register, slowly.
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From: CBS%UK.AC.ULCC.NOC::UNINETT.HSR::jensen 10-MAY-1989 20:28:32.63
Subj: image processing for VMS
Do somebody know of any public domain (or cheap) image processing packages for
vax/vms? Anything that is in reasonable portable C is of interest. Intended use
is either under VMS or Macintosh Finder. Also any business/scientific graphics
packages are of interest (also those written in fortran that work with DEC VWS).
If possible I want to know where (how) to obtain these packages. Thanks in
advance for any help.
-
Tarjei T. Jensen
vax/vms manager
Rogaland Polytecnic
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From: C.Cartledge
Subject: Image and Imaging Standards Work
Image and Imaging standards work
--------------------------------
Standards bodies are beginning to look at image processing and and the
storage/transfer of images. Two groups are active, to my knowledge.
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC2 (previous standards include that ISO character
standards like ISO 646 seven bit character sets) are looking at the
encoding of bi-level and colour images and will take account of existing
CCITT FAX standards and the like.
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC24 (of GKS, CGM and PHIGS fame) has a study period on
image processing. This has been extended to include transfer and
storage.
I would be grateful hear views on these topics.
Chris Cartledge (JANET C.Cartledge@SHEF.PE)
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From: Paul Hudson
Subj: References for 2-D graphics
I find I'm having to delve further and further into this ....
The sort of stuff I'm interested in is scan-conversion, clipping,
representations of curves ( parametric & implicit ), approximation of
curves and so on, both uses of & theortical foundations for. Very
basic to most of you I'm sure, but we all have to start somewhere!
So, what should I be reading? I've read Foley&Van Dam + Newman&Sproull.
Papers. journals, books - anything.
Paul Hudson MAIL: Monotype ADG, Science Park, Cambridge, CB4 4FQ, UK.
PHONE: +44 (223) 420018 EMAIL: paul@moncam.co.uk,
;" FAX: +44 (223) 420911 ...!ukc!acorn!moncam!paul
`"";";" "/dev/null full: please empty the bit bucket"