Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!hsdndev!husc6!genrad!stardent!jch
From: jch@Stardent.COM (Jan Hardenbergh)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Practical Intro to PHIGS (new book)
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.022646.6268@Stardent.COM>
Date: 16 Apr 91 02:26:46 GMT
Organization: Stardent Computer, Concord MA
Lines: 90


I just got a copy of "A Practical Introduction to PHIGS and PHIGS PLUS"
by Toby Howard, Terry Hewitt, R.J. Hubbold and K.M. Wyrwas.  ISBN
0-201-41641-7. I've been looking at it off and on all day now and am
more and more impressed each time I pick it up.

It would be hard for any new book on PHIGS to NOT be the best book on
PHIGS.  But this book goes way beyond being an improvement.  It is, as
it claims, a practical (and thorough) introduction to PHIGS.  The best
thing is that it is not intimidating.  It starts with a "Whirlwind tour"
to get your feet wet and then with a totally trivial example - draw a
line.  Only then does it start to systematically introduce primitives,
structures, etc.

It has many, many examples in C!!! The C binding matches the standard of
last year - before underscores.  This matches the current PHIGS
products, but those of us on the cutting edge need to add our own
underscores.  Not a big deal.  The examples are well thought out and
developed along the way. Appendix A & B are non-trivial examples of how
to do something useful in PHIGS.  The first is a viewing example and the
second shows what you can do with lighting.

It has 34 color plates showing variations lighting and shading options.

Diagrams are a strong point of this book.  It has all of the good diagrams
that you expect to see - viewing frustum, deferral update flow chart,
reflectance angles, a bicycle structure hierarchy chart, etc.  It also
has many new ones, ASF decision chart, good structure edit diagrams and
even archive conflict resolution diagrams ( that's going too far! :-).

Here's the table of contents:

 1. Whirlwind tour
 2. Getting started
 3. Graphical output
 4. Creating the model
 5. Editing the model
 6. 3D Viewing
 7. Graphical input
 8. Workstations
 9. Styles of output   [ attributes ]
10. Archiving
11. More about the CSS [ name sets, filters... ]
12. Dealing with errors
13. PHIGS PLUS graphical output
14. The PHIGS PLUS rendering pipeline

Appendix A - Viewing example program
Appendix B - PHIGS PLUS example program
Appendix C - Coordinate transforms  [ great ]
Appendix D - Using PHIGS with Fortran [sic]
Appendix E - Summary of functions, elements and errors
Appendix F - Colour models
Appendix G - Toby's annotated PHIGS bibliography
Bibliography
Glossary [O.K. needs more]
Index

339 pages, less than an inch thick.  This is not a reference book on all
of the details and issues of PHIGS.  Nor is this a read once and toss
tutorial.  This is a book to give on a good idea about how to use any
particular aspect of PHIGS.  It has enough detail to get you started but
keeps it simple enough so you can find what you want easily.  The
combination of this book and a good "call reference" manual, like the
one provided with the PEX Sample Implementation should be all most
people need.

But, as much as I like this book, we can always hope for a better one.
It could have both pieces of PHIGS (PHIGS89 & PHIGS-PLUS) integrated.
It could have an newer cut at the "C" binding - although the decision to
use the one that was out in the field was a good one, it won't be out in
the field for too long.  Those are really nits.  Still hoping for two
more at SIGGRAPH, Prentice Hall (Valerie Clark) and Wiley & Sons
(Hopgood & Duce).  If they are as good as this book, acquiring PHIGS
knowledge will become much, much easier.

This book is not the standard warmed over or a breezy tour of PHIGS as
was "Understanding PHIGS" and the chapter in Foley, van Dam, Feiner and
Hughes.  It is PHIGS explained as you need it by people who have -
obviously - explained it before, many times.

Disclaimer, I did review this book last June.  I thought from the state
it was in then (Pascal examples? and almost no PHIGS-PLUS) that it was
destined to be a little better than mediocre book.  The explanations
that were there were good, but...scarce.  This book is radically better
than the draft. It is great.

-- 
-Jan "YON" Hardenbergh       jch@stardent.com         (508)-371-9810x261
Stardent Computer, 6 N.E. Tech Center, 521 Virginia Rd,Concord, MA 01742