Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!hplabs!hpfcdc!stroyan
From: stroyan@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Mike Stroyan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: sun/360 bitmapped to cat's eye
Message-ID: <5570188@hpfcdc.HP.COM>
Date: 21 May 89 20:27:22 GMT
References: <224@innovus.UUCP>
Organization: HP Ft. Collins, Co.
Lines: 41

> We find ourselves in the position of having to port some graphics related
> stuff from sun/360's to 9000 (3xx,8xx's) and are wondering what the closest
> living relative to SUNCORE on the HP's would be??  We would like to support
> the 98550's and such monitors.
> 
> 	* is there a core-like library out there ???
> 	* should we just use Starbase or GKS ???
> 	* perhaps X-11 ??
> 	* just say no ??

The HP DGL/AGP libraries are based on the relatively old "CORE"
standard.  They are only supported for compatibility with older
programs.  Given that the portability between "CORE" implementations was
never very good, you may find it just as easy to port to a more current
library.

The Starbase library gives better performance and greater functionality
than DGL/AGP.  It is also bundled with systems, making it cheaper to try
it out.  It should be a relatively easy port from a "CORE" based
program.

If you are interested in investing in portability to other vendor's
systems in the future, then you could use a standard such as GKS,
Template's Figaro PHIGS, or X11.  The first two are separately
purchased, so again you have to consider cost.  GKS and PHIGS might be
difficult to adapt a program to if the code was not already oriented
towards a display list architecture.  Both libraries use the Starbase
library underneath, so the platforms supported should remain equivalent.

The X11 graphics functions are quite different from "CORE".  There is no
support for floating point display transforms or stroked text in X11.
An X11 program should be responsive to asynchronous events from the
server.  Unless your program uses device coordinates and always executes
an event loop, you probably would have a difficult port to Xlib calls.
You can get networked multivendor X11 functionality from the other
graphics libraries by using the Starbase X11 driver or get better single
system performance and functionality using the Starbase drivers with
direct hardware access inside an X11 window, so there is little
advantage to coding to X11 graphics functions.

Mike Stroyan, stroyan@hpfcla.hp.com