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From: kauel@mentor.com (Kendall Auel)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: informal survey
Message-ID: <1990May9.183201.9713@mentor.com>
Date: 9 May 90 18:32:01 GMT
References: <4a45a410.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Reply-To: kauel@mntgfx.UUCP (Kendall Auel)
Distribution: na
Organization: Mentor Graphics Corporation
Lines: 35

Re: PHIGS

Any graphics library must have two important features in
order to be accepted by the user community:

o Functionality
o Performance

An important thing to keep in mind is that a well-designed application
is 90% independent of any particular graphics library or standard.
In other words, the low-level graphics routines are only called by
a graphics interface layer within the application.  Thus, standardization
of the underlying graphics library is not a benfit to the majority of
the application.  The virtue of being a "standard" does not help PHIGS
if functionality and performance are not superior to other options.
(PHIGS is not truly standardized, anyway, since there is no guarantee
of even source-level compatibility.)

PEX does a good job of addressing a lot of problems with PHIGS.  First,
it is a window-based interface.  Second, it allows for immediate-mode
rendering.  These help alleviate concerns with functionality.  But
what about performance?  X-Windows is not necessarily known for being
lightning-fast, and PEX suffers from the same reputation.  I have
seen some demos of PEX on high-end (read:expensive) workstations that
are highly interactive.  This should improve over time.  For applications
which have already decided to use the X-Windows system, PEX looks
very attractive (especially considering the alternatives -- are there
any?)  Right now though, I don't think many 3D applications will
decide to port to X just so that they can use PEX.  The best hope
for PEX is that X-Windows and Motif become the industry standards.

These opinions are not necessarily those of MGC
-- 
Kendall Auel       |   Mentor Graphics Corporation  |  Ich bin ein Berliner
kauel@mentor.com   |   Silicon Design Division      |  "I am a pastry"