Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!bellcore!spectral!sjs
From: sjs@spectral.ctt.bellcore.com (Stan Switzer)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: Re: Is "transform" in NeWS 1.1 OK ?
Message-ID: <13757@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 31 Jan 89 15:07:41 GMT
References: <4495@natmlab.dms.oz> <25826@sgi.SGI.COM>
Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com
Reply-To: sjs@spectral.UUCP (Stan Switzer)
Organization: Computer Technology Transfer, Bellcore
Lines: 19

Never make any assumptions about the device coordinates.

You might feel justified in expecting the default matrix to have the
form "[ n 0 0 -n 0 0 ]" because that is the way most framebuffers
(printers and screens alike) are laid out, but you'd be wrong.

I got a rude awakening one day when I discovered that a certain
printer's default matrix had the form "[ 0 n -n 0 0 0 ]".  This seemed
pretty wierd to me until I realized that the paper fed through the
printer sideways, right edge first.

In fact, if you were driving a wide aspect-ratio screen you might want
to turn the thing sideways and change the default matrix rather than
the modifying the beam scan pattern or framebuffer layout (but expect
people to scream when they try to hook up a projector).

Stan Switzer  sjs@ctt.belllcore.com
    "NeWS -- the windowing system for the other half of your brain."
      		 -- Don Hopkins