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From: mayer@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Niels Mayer)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Visualization software ??
Message-ID: <6047@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 11 Oct 90 20:48:35 GMT
References: <21109@well.sf.ca.us> <1986@lupine.NCD.COM>
Reply-To: mayer@hplabs.hp.com (Niels Mayer)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Labs, Software & Systems Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
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In article <1986@lupine.NCD.COM> mikeh@bryant.NCD.COM (Mike Harrigan) writes:
>Hmm, don't know exactly what you're doing, but you should check out
>DataViews from V.I. Corporation. You can reach them at (413) 253-3482 or
>vi@vicorp.uu.net.

Also check out PV~WAVE from Precision Visuals.... expensive.

I saw DataViews demo'd at the last CMU SEI Affiliates symposium -- it
looked really neat, but it's also quite expensive -- I recall the original
poster is doing C3I, I guess he can afford it since we'll all end up paying
for it through taxes. Since 3D graphics is just a hobby for me (not a part
of my real job yet), I've been looking for a software platform that costs
much much less than a new japanese sports-car...

However ...

Recently, I heard about apE 2.0 from the Ohio Supercomputer Center -- it's
only $75.00 and it comes as source code that supposedly compiles a variety
of computers (HP, Sun, SGI, DEC/Ultrix, IBM/Aix) and runs under Xwindows,
SunView, and SGI's GL. I got a fax about this from someone that attended
SIGGRAPH, and this gave a pointer to a bunch of papers (postscript format)
on the environment. The address for retrieving this info via anonymous ftp
is apE.osgp.osc.edu (128.146.18.18); e-mail is apE@apE.osgp.osc.edu; phone
is (614)292-0006.

Unfortunately, according to the README file on apE.osgp.osc.edu, apE 2.0 is
not released yet because they delayed release to accomodate porting to the
NeXT platform. Supposedly available real-soon-now.

Has anybody used apE 2.0?? What's it like?? How's it work?? Is it a useable
environment, or is it a laboratory curiosity??

I'm particularly interested in playing around with animation via a
language-based graphics environment (4GL-ish). A grasp for X windows would
do nicely.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	    Niels Mayer -- hplabs!mayer -- mayer@hplabs.hp.com
		  Human-Computer Interaction Department
		       Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
			      Palo Alto, CA.
				   *