mrt7455@evtprp0b (Michael R Tucker) (06/01/90)
I am new to graphics and graphical user interface programming. I know that
I am going to have to get some experience if not expertise in writting a GUI
for some of my applications. I expect to do most of my GUI developement in
X or Motif. My questions are these:
1) I have the first 3 O'Reilly X window system books, what other
texts would you suggest as reference and tutorial helps?
2) How would you suggest to get started coding graphic applications?
I know to get a good spec from my user and I have a good idea of
how to lay out my screen. What I want to know is what kind of
projects would be good to start out on?
My supervisor wants me to become his GUI expert and I'm a bit anxious about
that. I have to have the right to make mistakes, wander down the wrong path,
and just generally screw up while I try to learn graphics programming. To
me an expert is not somebody with all the right answers, but somebody what
you did wrong and how to do it right. To become an expert I've got to make
mistakes!alan@cogswell.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Alan S. Mazer) (06/05/90)
Excuse me for posting this. Mail bounced. In article <133@evtprp0b.UUCP> you write: >I am new to graphics and graphical user interface programming. I know that >I am going to have to get some experience if not expertise in writting a GUI >for some of my applications. I expect to do most of my GUI developement in >X or Motif. My questions are these: > > 1) I have the first 3 O'Reilly X window system books, what other > texts would you suggest as reference and tutorial helps? My personal preference is to just start coding. You may be really book- oriented, but I learn much faster by just starting some (perhaps silly) example task and discovering what problems I encounter. The important thing is that you start coding. > 2) How would you suggest to get started coding graphic applications? > I know to get a good spec from my user and I have a good idea of > how to lay out my screen. What I want to know is what kind of > projects would be good to start out on? You might want to start out with something that does simple plotting, perhaps in several colors, in a window. Label your axes. Allow resizing. That alone will teach you a ton about X. Re graphics I really recommend the Foley and Van Dam book, "Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics". I've been doing a lot of graphics lately, and I've learned a lot from the book. It's good for low-level graphics things like drawing circles quickly and sometimes things like hidden-line removal, too, although it wasn't as helpful for that. It does help with drawing three dimensional objects and doing rotations and such. >My supervisor wants me to become his GUI expert and I'm a bit anxious about >that. I have to have the right to make mistakes, wander down the wrong path, >and just generally screw up while I try to learn graphics programming. To >me an expert is not somebody with all the right answers, but somebody what >you did wrong and how to do it right. To become an expert I've got to make >mistakes! GUIs and graphics are two very separate issues. Graphics is a technical field. To be a GUI "expert" you're just going to need experience with a variety of user interfaces. That will only come with experience and a lot of thought and some creativity. Play with currently available interfaces and decide what you (and your users) like. This won't require a major investment of effort. You will make mistakes, but you shouldn't make too many major ones. -- Alan # "But seriously, what could go wrong?" ..!ames!elroy!alan alan@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov