Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!ithaca!garry
From: garry@ithaca.uucp (Garry Wiegand)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: PEX, PHIGS, DEC5000?
Message-ID: <1991Mar20.044028.16631@ithaca.uucp>
Date: 20 Mar 91 04:40:28 GMT
Organization: Ithaca Software
Lines: 25

rthomson@dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson) writes:
>PEX is PHIGS/PHIGS-PLUS Extensions to X, so if they are using PEX they
>are using PHIGS ... 

No, you can use PEX without getting involved with Phigs. We are
planning on doing this, as soon as we have been given an actual
working Pex. 

PEX has some constructs in it that are specific to Phigs, but the
bulk of PEX is a geometry pipeline protocol plus various renderers
on the receiving end. 

A geometry pipeline is a very generic concept in the computer
graphics world: no matter where you start from in inventing your
pipeline you always end up with just about the same thing at the bottom
end. Because of the constraints on the problem, like the kinds of
geometry you have available.

PEX might have been better-named as "3-D Extensions to X". I am aware
that there are people on the committee who wanted to bind things
more tightly to Phigs but, in looking at the spec, I see that the 
generalists seem to have won out for the most part.

Garry Wiegand    ---    Ithaca Software, Alameda, California
...!uunet!ithaca!garry, garry%ithaca.uucp@uunet.uu.net