Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pacbell!hoptoad!xanth!kent
From: kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu (Kent Paul Dolan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A Modest Proposal (IFF QuickDraw (ACK PHFT!))
Keywords: NAPLPS
Message-ID: <5256@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: 15 May 88 13:27:06 GMT
References: <4607@super.upenn.edu> <5930@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan)
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 30

In article <5930@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes:
>In article <4607@super.upenn.edu> ranjit@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Ranjit Bhatnagar) writes:
>>The problem:
>>	By some coincidence, there already is such a standard: Apple
>>QuickDraw.  [ ... ]
>
>	I've got a better idea:  NAPLPS.
>	In short, if you want to do portable structured graphics, QuickDraw
>is not the way to go.  It's proprietary, and far from general.  You should
>at least look at what NAPLPS can offer you.

I said most of this before (SLOW NEWS FEED again), so I'll be brief.  Leo was
right, QuickDraw is not a standard, it is a manufacturer's specification, and
Apple is free to change it just to make Commodore's life miserable.

Leo is also right, NAPLPS is a "blessed" standard.  It's also pretty nice,
some of the folks who designed it were friends of mine, so I have a copy of
the draft that went for vote.

But, NAPLPS is not a useful standard for a product to be sold outside North
America, because it is a regional standard, not a worldwide standard.
Europe and  Canada/The U.S. agreed to disagree on what constituted a
standard for drawing output to a TV style display.

The "blessed" standard that does have the ISO world use kiss is the
Computer Graphics Metafile, from ANSI X3H3.  If we want the most
useful one in terms of a world market, that is the one to be looking
at.

Kent, the man from xanth.