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From: alan@cogswell.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Alan S. Mazer)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: help getting started in graphics
Message-ID: <1990Jun4.170251.18314@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 4 Jun 90 17:02:51 GMT
References: <133@evtprp0b.UUCP>
Sender: news@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Usenet)
Organization: Image Analysis Systems Grp, JPL
Lines: 50


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