Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!bcm!uhnix2!uhnix1!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: A modest proposal (was IFF/Quickdraw)
Keywords: PostScript
Message-ID: <2032@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 20 May 88 14:31:39 GMT
References: <4083@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 50

In article ... richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
> For inclusion into IFF files, I propose that types (or hunks or whatever
> the appropos terminology is)

Chunks.

> be invented that correspond directly to
> PS primitives. What we end up with then, is essentially Amiga quickdraw,
> except we dont call it quickdraw.

I would like to suggest a chunk type "OBJ " that can map to a PostScript
subroutine or to a drawing program's "object". It would contain a bunch of
PS/IFF chunks.

This would do much to close the gap between a rendering standard and a
storage standard. There's nothing that says FooDraw needs to use DR2D (or
whatever) files for internal use (DMCS doesn't use SMUS by default, for
example), just so long as it can import and export it.

> To render an 'amiga quickdraw/PS/IFF' file:

> 1) To the screen: there already exists an Amiga PostScript previewer. Thats
> the hard part. The conversion from 'amiga quickdraw/PS/IFF' file to 
> PostScript commands is trivial.

It would be desirable to have a library that would take PS/IFF chunks and
render them directly into a bitmap, though. That way you could do a very
close map between your rendering code and your "save as PSIFF" code.

> 3) To bitmapped printers: Use the output of 1)

Please, no. Most bitmapped printers *do* support a higher resolution than the
screen. You yourself note:

> ... THE PERIPHERAL DOES THE RASTERIZATION.

While we can't get that right now, you'd get much better results generating
rasters at the printer's resolution. And you could do it on a scan-by-scan
basis and save a considerable amount of memory.

> >Storing Objects and such :

> Oh please. Lets get 2D objects working first. While the temptation
> is great to standardize 3D...

Agree.
-- 
-- Peter da Silva      `-_-'      ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- "Have you hugged your U wolf today?" ...!bellcore!tness1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These may be the official opinions of Hackercorp.