jezebel@ut-emx.UUCP (06/16/88)
Netters, I want to know all about Phigs....; Is Phigs+ the latest version ? Any books on this topic ? How close is it to GKS ? Is it just a GKS extension ? ANY information is welcome; especially so texts/articles/ journal references. Thanks, Jim
thom@hpfcdq.HP.COM (Tom Morrissey) (06/17/88)
RE: PHIGS and PHIGS+ > I want to know all about Phigs.... One writeup of PHIGS and a comparison of PHIGS to GKS[-3D] can be found in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, August 1986, Volume 6, Number 8, pages 50-57. I happen to think it is a reasonable overview of what PHIGS is, but then again I co-authored it so I might be a bit biased. > Is Phigs+ the latest version (of PHIGS)? Well, not strictly speaking, but in some matter of speaking. PHIGS has been developed within ANSI and within ISO. ANSI and ISO work is coming to a closure. It should be technically (c.f. editorially) stable (i.e. only changes not affecting implementations and applications) by the end of July and hopefully the final text published as soon as possible after that. PHIGS+ was developed by an ad hoc group of folks from industry (i.e. they didn't do their work under any *sanctioned* standards body like ISO, ANSI or IEEE) - not that this diminishes the value of the work in any way; just an observation. A version of PHIGS+ (version 3.0) was made available which respresents the culmination of that work. ANSI X3H3 is currently considering taking PHIGS+ version 3.0 and processing this work. From the technical standpoint PHIGS+ is an extension of PHIGS. As such one could look at PHIGS+ as a new version of PHIGS. However, since all the processes aren't done and since we are dealing with so many different groups and processes that viewpoint might be misleading. > Any books on this topic ? Template Graphics Software (TGS), 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121, (619) 455-5590, has a book entitled, "Understanding PHIGS". It was written prior to 1985 and since PHIGS has evolved a bit since then some of the details have changed and new features added. > How close is it to GKS? Is it just a GKS extension? See the IEEE article cited above for details, but in a nutshell ... PHIGS is draws extensively from GKS. All of the primitives, attributes and input control of GKS and are in PHIGS. Most of the concepts of workstation control are in PHIGS. PHIGS is most definitely not just an extension of GKS. Even though one could conceivably port GKS applications over to PHIGS there are differences. These differences exist because GKS and PHIGS are targeted at different audiences. It is not the intent of PHIGS to take over of supplant GKS. I believe an upcoming edition of the Siggraph publication will include the PHIGS+ version 3.0 definition (a previous posting to this notes group - since gone from my system had the details). You might want to connect up with Srini Sankaran (srinivas@cs.utexas.edu) in your own back yard for details. He is the moderator of a PHIGS+ mailing list and I imagine he could give you lots of useful pointers. -- Tom Morrissey. ANSI and ISO PHIGS document editor ANSI and ISO PHIGS/FTN binding document editor PHIGS+ ad hoc committee vice-chair