garry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand as guest) (04/06/89)
We are trying to track down the early design history of Phigs and
get it straight. I had had a vague impression that Phigs was basically
an IBM contract to RPI which later got promoted to being an ANSI
committee, but that's all I knew.
My partner has called ANSI and dug through the Siggraph proceedings of
the early 80's. The information is very scanty there, but it sounds like:
Phigs was an outgrowth of a GKS-3D group (which faded away upon not
being able to reach agreement with the ISO GKS committee?);
The first (ad hoc?) committee to meet called it "PMIGS", started
meeting in 1980, (and did the design from scratch?);
The first official standards committee called it "PHIGS" and started
meeting in 1982.
I don't know how the IBM/RPI work and the Megatek work fits into this,
or who/when the real designers were.
Can anyone who was there in the early days fill us in on the designers,
the basic chronology, and the first implementations of PHIGS? How did
it really happen? (merci)
garry wiegand (garry@larch.cadif.cornell.edu - @tcgould won't work!)cme@cloud9.Stratus.COM (Carl Ellison) (04/07/89)
In article <7685@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, garry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand as guest) writes: > We are trying to track down the early design history of Phigs and > get it straight. . . . > > I don't know how the IBM/RPI work and the Megatek work fits into this, > or who/when the real designers were. > > Can anyone who was there in the early days fill us in on the designers, > the basic chronology, and the first implementations of PHIGS? How did > it really happen? (merci) Check with Rich Ehlers at Evans & Sutherland. I believe he's still there. He was the E&S representative on the committee. From our point of view, at E&S at the time, PHIGS was very strongly influenced by the PS300 data structure and interface. Since I was the principal designer of that data structure, even though I've never used PHIGS I think of it fondly, as a grandson. For info on the PS300, you can get manuals from E&S (I believe the machine is still on the market). You can also get an overview of it in Foley & van Dam. (sp?) The PS300 was started in 1979 and first shipped in 1981. The prototype was up and running in 1980, with the data structure nearly complete in early 1981 but periodically augmented by E&S developers after that. The PS300 differed from earlier graphics devices in that instead of the MOVETO-DRAWTO programming model it supported the notion of the program building a structured geometric model which, almost as an afterthought, was continually displayed. That M.O. was an outgrowth of the graphics system I used on the TX-2 in 1966-69. That graphics system was designed and implemented by people of Adams Associates. I wasn't there for that original design, so you'll have to track down people who remember the really old days (TX-2 before 1966). I'll bet that the strongest influence on that graphics system design was Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad (1963?) also done on the TX-2, which brings the idea full circle from Ivan back to Ivan. However, I can't say that for a fact. If Marie Morello is on the net, she might know the TX-2 graphics system origins. In any case, check with Rich... Enjoy, --Carl Ellison UUCP:: cme@cloud9.Stratus.COM SNail:: Stratus Computer; 55 Fairbanks Blvd.; Marlborough MA 01752 Disclaimer:: (of course)
cme@cloud9.Stratus.COM (Carl Ellison) (04/07/89)
For the early precursors to PHIGS, try people heavily involved with graphics on the TX-2 circa 1963 to 1966. In addition to Marie Morello, you might look up Larry Roberts (of ARPANET fame) and Ivan Sutherland -- both of whom did seminal graphics research at that time and may have influenced the system design for the TX-2 calligraphic displays and the time shared driver/data structure behind them. Even if they weren't the parents of that software design, they should remember who the parents were. --Carl Ellison UUCP:: cme@cloud9.Stratus.COM SNail:: Stratus Computer; 55 Fairbanks Blvd.; Marlborough MA 01752 Disclaimer:: (of course)
garry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand as guest) (04/08/89)
In a recent article cme@cloud9.Stratus.COM (Carl Ellison) wrote: >In article <7685@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, garry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand as guest) writes: >> We are trying to track down the early design history of Phigs ... > >From our point of view, at E&S at the time, PHIGS was very strongly influenced >by the PS300 data structure and interface. Since I was the principal >designer of that data structure, even though I've never used PHIGS >I think of it fondly, as a grandson. If I remember the PS300 right, the best/most novel part (to me) was the function network concept for handling user input. There are hints of similar concepts nowadays in some of the UIMS toolboxes, but it's been a long dry spell between then and now. Congrats to you and to E&S on building a good interesting machine. (Thanks for responding - this is getting interesting!) garry wiegand (garry@larch.cadif.cornell.edu - @tcgould won't work)