Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!unido!gmdzi!gmdzi.gmd.de!wissk
From: wissk@gmdzi.gmd.de (Peter Wisskirchen)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Info requested on PEX, PHIGS ( also SPHIGS )
Message-ID: <3395@gmdzi.gmd.de>
Date: 26 Sep 90 12:21:07 GMT
References: <1990Sep25.150737.6484@Stardent.COM>
Sender: news@gmdzi.gmd.de
Organization: GMD
Lines: 62

In article <1990Sep25.150737.6484@Stardent.COM> jch@Stardent.COM (Jan 
Hardenbergh @stardent) writes:
> At SIGGRAPH I asked all of the publishers there if they had and books
> on PHIGS. Only Addison Wesley and Prentice Hall knew what I was talking
> about. They both have books in the works, both due out early next year,
> at least, accoding to people in thier booths at SIGGRAPH. I also heard
> Template is going to update thier book "Understanding PHIGS".
> 
> Also, here are some tidbits about PHIGS ( or SPHIGS ) in the
> new Foley, van Dam, Feiner & Hughes.
>
> While this may not be much of a practical introduction to standard
> PHIGS, it does give the concepts pretty well. And at 60 pages, it is
> probably the quickest way to start shooting buzzwords like a "real PHIGS
> expert".

In my book 
Wisskirchen: Object-Oriented Graphics 
- From GKS and PHIGS to Object-Oriented Systems - 
(August 1990, 236 pp. $ 39.00)
I tried to compare OO with traditional approaches
(ISBN 3-540-52859-8 Springer Berlin ... ISBN 0-387-52859-8 Springer New 
York ..)

A lot of material is devoted to PHIGS, showing mainly its weak points if 
you analyze it
from an object-oriented view. But at present,  no elegant alternative
is available on the market (as far as I know). 
(In the international standard committees, a new graphics standard is 
discussed under the 
key word "NewAPI" with a strong tendency towards an object-oriented 
standard of the
ninetees. Specialists with experience in graphics and oo programing are 
needed
 to contribute to this developement. ) 


Contents of the book: 
Guidelines for Designing Graphics Systems. - Object-Oriented Programming 
in Smalltalk-80. - User Interface Architecture: Application Frameworks, 
MVC Concept. - Smalltalk-80 Graphics Kernel. - GKS, PHIGS and 
Object-Oriented System Design. -  Generation and Editing of Multi-Level 
Part Hierarchies. - Programming Examples. - Extension of a Graphics Kernel 
by Use of Inheritance. - Attaching  Additional Semantics. - 
How to Integrate Constraints. - Graphics and Knowledge Representation. - 
Prototypes and Delegation. - Requirements for an Object-Oriented Graphics 
Standard.

Book's subject matter:
This book builds up a synthesis between the functionality of traditional 
graphics systems, such as the international standards GKS and PHIGS, and 
the potential of object-oriented systems. Based on concrete examples it 
shows the conceptual progress which can be reached  by object-oriented 
design philosophy and the use of object-oriented tools for computer 
graphics.

  Peter Wisskirchen
c/o German National Research Center for Computer Science (GMD)
Schloss Birlinghoven, D-5205 St.Augustin 1, FRG
Email: wissk@gmdzi.gmd.de
or wisskirchen@f3.gmd.dbp.de   
Phone: +49 2241 142315   Fax: +49 2241 14 2889 Telex: 8 89 469 gmd d