Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!husc6!m2c!applix!scott
From: scott@applix.UUCP (Scott Evernden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: NAPLPS (was Re: Color QuickDraw)
Message-ID: <701@applix.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 88 16:27:33 GMT
References: <9708@apple.Apple.Com> <97800007@silver> <53300@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: scott@applix.UUCP (Scott Evernden)
Organization: APPLiX Inc., Westboro MA
Lines: 19

Hmm, I thoght that NAPLP like PostScript, ReGIS, CGM, various TEK command sets,
etc, etc, were *presentation level* protocols.  Unless I remember wrong, they
are used to *render* pictures, but provide nothing in the way of *structured*
information.  Sure, you can make up macros and defs and escapes and such,
but then you haven't defined anything, and you're back where you started.
How is an application supposed to understand grouping, attributes, and other
relationships from a NAPLPS or PostScript data file?  How are these
mechanisms extended to handle 3D information, constraints, and history,
for example?

These protocols deal with Viewing and not Modelling.

Formats like IGES, etc., are more in line with where I think
investigations should begin.  Also note that in over 10 years of
standardization efforts on the part of ANSI and ISO, and despite CORE, GKS,
PHIGS, CGM, etc, etc,. there is still no universally adopted model for
representing graphical information.

-scott