jf@ap.co.umist.ac.uk (John Forrest) (07/12/90)
I'm not sure if the discussion on this is still open, so perhaps we are talking of R6? Anyway what I'ld like to see is some common support for graphics meta files - ie. graphics built up from descriptions of graphical objects in Windows. Having seen the equivalents used on many other systems, eg. GEM on Atari's and PC's, the effect of standard meta files on drawing packages is quite considerable. This can obviously be done with appropriate widget's. However, if designed properly, it should be possible to cut some graphics from one program and paste it into another via an X mechanism similar to the text selection stuff. Perhaps someone has already done this sort of stuff, I'm not sure, but it really ought to be in the standard - ie. the format of the graphics resources, although not perhaps exactly how the look on the screen. Also storage files formats ought to be given, in a similar manner to the bitmaps are at the moment. I actually believe that done properly this could fulfill some of the reasons why people were asking for Postscript to be incorporated (ie. to be able to draw information in a device independent way) but without the performance load, and in a more usable format. John Forrest, Dept. of Computation, UMIST.