rbd@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu (roger davis) (11/27/90)
A new OpenWindows PostScript-based graphical editor named 'ice' is now available for anonymous ftp from Internet host lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu (129.236.10.30). ice (Image Composition Environment) is an imaging tool that allows raster images to be combined with a wide variety of PostScript annotations in WYSIWYG fashion via X11 imaging routines and NeWS PostScript rasterizing. It is commonly used by scientific staff here to overlay pre-processed Landsat-type images with annotations such as map contours, symbols, text labels, etc. The final composite image may be saved in either rasterfile or PostScript format for output to a hardcopy device. Individual graphical elements (rasters, pre-existing PostScript images, text labels, vectors, curves, symbols, polygons and Cartesian axes) are stored on an object list. Each object has a number of attributes that can be independently set (e.g., font, line width, color, etc.) or made to reference a global value. Objects can be dragged across the display with the mouse, scaled, rotated, etc. They can be drawn in any sequence to control the manner in which superimposed components overlay one another. They can be grouped into composite objects which can then undergo many of the same kinds of operations as a unit. The software requires OpenWindows 2.0 and Sun C++ 2.0. (It may well build under GNU g++ but I haven't tried.) It also requires two other locally developed packages, the LXT library (an Xlib-based toolkit) and a small C++ class library. All files (pub/ice.tar.Z, pub/lxt.tar.Z and pub/ldgoc++.tar.Z) are available in compressed tar format. pub/ice.tar.Z contains a README that gives installation instructions, as well as an extensive man page (ice.1). All software is the property of Columbia University and may not be redistributed without permission.