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Graphics Software & Standards Guide

There are two classes of graphics software: general programming packages and special-purpose applications packages. General packages provide extensive graphics functions that can be used in programming languages like C/FORTRAN, while applications packages are designed for non-programmers to generate displays without worrying about graphics operations. Two major graphics standards that have been developed are GKS and PHIGS, which define standard graphics functions to allow software portability between hardware systems and applications. PHIGS features increased capabilities over GKS for modeling, color, rendering and picture manipulation. Separate standards also exist for device interfaces and storing/transmitting pictures.

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900 views2 pages

Graphics Software & Standards Guide

There are two classes of graphics software: general programming packages and special-purpose applications packages. General packages provide extensive graphics functions that can be used in programming languages like C/FORTRAN, while applications packages are designed for non-programmers to generate displays without worrying about graphics operations. Two major graphics standards that have been developed are GKS and PHIGS, which define standard graphics functions to allow software portability between hardware systems and applications. PHIGS features increased capabilities over GKS for modeling, color, rendering and picture manipulation. Separate standards also exist for device interfaces and storing/transmitting pictures.

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GRAPHICS SOFTWARE

• There are two general classes of graphics software:

• General programming packages, and

• Special-purpose applications packages.

• A general graphics programming package provides an extensive set of graphics functions that can
be used in a high-level programming language, such as C or FORTRAN.
• An example of a general graphics programming package is the GL (Graphics Library) system on
Silicon Graphics equipment.
• Basic functions in a general package include those for generating picture components (straight
lines, polygons, circles, and other figures), setting colour and intensity values, selecting views, and
applying transformations.

• Application graphics packages, on the other hand, are designed for nonprogrammers, so that users
can generate displays without worrying about how graphics operations work.
• The interface to the graphics routines in such packages allows users to communicate with the
programs in their own terms.
• Examples of such applications packages are the artist's painting programs and various business,
medical, and CAD systems.

GRAPHICS STANDARDS

• The primary goal of standardized graphics software is portability.

• When packages are designed with standard graphics functions, software can be moved easily from
one hardware system to another and used in different implementations and applications

• Without standards, programs designed for one hardware system often cannot be transferred to
another system without extensive rewriting of the programs.

• After lots of efforts, two general standards have been developed: • GKS • PHIGS

GKS - GRAPHICAL KERNEL SYSTEM

• This system was adopted as the first graphics software standard by the International Standards
Organization (ISO) and by various national standards organizations, including the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI).

• GKS was originally designed as a two-dimensional graphics package • A three-dimensional GKS


extension was also subsequently developed.

PHIGS – Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics Standard

• This is second software standard to be developed.


• It features increased capabilities for object modelling, colour specifications, surface rendering, and
picture manipulations than GKS.

• An extension of PHIGS, called PHIGS+, was developed to provide three dimensional surface-
shading capabilities not available in PHIGS.

• Standard graphics functions are defined as a set of specifications that is independent of any
programming language (at abstract level).

• A language binding is then defined for a particular high-level programming language.

• This binding gives the syntax for accessing the various standard graphics functions from this
language.

• Although PHIGS presents a specification for basic graphics functions, it does not provide a standard
methodology for a graphics interface to output devices, nor does it specify methods for storing and
transmitting pictures.

• Separate standards have been developed for these areas.

• Standardization for device interface methods is given in the Computer Graphics Interface (CGI)
system.

• And the Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) system specifies standards for archiving and
transporting pictures.

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