From: williamj@cs.man.ac.uk (Gareth Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: PHIGS Toolkit *New Release*
Date: 5 Oct 92 10:55:31 GMT
Distribution: comp.graphics
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester



                     THE PHIGS TOOLKIT

     A PORTABLE TOOLKIT FOR PHIGS APPLICATION PROGRAMMERS

            *************************************
            **** NEW RELEASE VERSION 3.1 FOR ****
            ****       SunPHIGS 2.0          ****
            ****       HP PHIGS 2.2          ****
            ****         PEX-SI              ****
            *************************************

We are pleased to announce the availability of version 3.1 of the PHIGS
Toolkit, a portable toolkit for PHIGS application Programmers. The PHIGS
Toolkit has been developed at the University of Manchester, UK, and is
funded by the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and the
Advisory Group on Computer Graphics (AGOCG). The Toolkit is based on the
experience of the developers who have been active PHIGS programmers for
several years and were also involved in the ISO technical review of PHIGS
and PHIGS PLUS.

Following the release in July this year of version 3.0 of the PHIGS
Toolkit, version 3.1 is now available which supports SunPHIGS 2.0,
HP PHIGS 2.2 and MIT's PEX-SI.

MAIN FEATURES OF THE TOOLKIT
----------------------------

 o comprehensive transformations library
 o automatic drawing of structure network hierarchy diagrams
 o automatic drawing of structure content diagrams
 o interactive CSS debugger
 o interactive view editor
 o window system implemented using PHIGS structures
 o interactive PHIGS Interpreter
 o comprehensive colour model support library
 o menu system to extend PHIGS input

 o Runs with C and FORTRAN for SunPHIGS on SunOS
 o Runs with C for HP PHIGS on HP-UX
 o Runs with C for PEX-SI on SunOS
 o Runs with C and FORTRAN for DEC PHIGS on VAX/VMS (PTK 2.0 only)

 o full source code provided
 o demonstration programs provided
 o comprehensive documentation

WHAT IS THE PHIGS TOOLKIT?
--------------------------

The purpose of the PHIGS Toolkit is to help application programmers to
program more effectively and securely using PHIGS. The functionality
provided by PHIGS is low-level, and the PHIGS Toolkit provides a number of
tools of various levels of complexity in order to make programming with
PHIGS quicker, and less painful.  To the programmer, it is as if the
functions provided by PHIGS have been supplemented with a set of additional
functions, and a typical application will use both `raw' PHIGS functions as
well as PHIGS Toolkit functions.  A convenient way to view the Toolkit is
as a layer of software which sits `on top of' PHIGS.

Tools in the PHIGS Toolkit are divided into two categories: PROGRAMMING
TOOLS, and HIGH-LEVEL TOOLS.  Programming tools are generally quite simple
single-purpose procedures, and are designed to help applications
programmers to construct PHIGS programs more quickly and reliably. The
high-level tools are more powerful, and provide programmers with means for
visualising and debugging structure networks.

PROGRAMMING TOOLS
-----------------

 o the Transformations Library -- functions for
   constructing and manipulating coordinate transformations.

 o the HashStrings Library -- functions which enable text
   strings to be used in situations where integers would normally
   be required.

 o the PHIGS Utilities Library -- utility functions,
   providing operations (such as `copy element') which are not directly
   provided by PHIGS, as well as common sequences of PHIGS function calls
   `bundled up' into single functions.

 o the PHIGS Traversal State List Library -- functions for
   controlling and inquiring a simulated structure network traversal.

 o the Colour Library -- functions for defining colour
   values using English words and phrases, and for interchangeably
   manipulating colours using various colour models.

 o the PHIGS Textual Interpreter (Phinter) -- a tool for reading textual
   PHIGS scripts. Phinter may be used interactively with a PHIGS string device
   or standard input.

HIGH-LEVEL TOOLS
----------------

 o the PHIGS Structure Content Drawer -- a tool to generate diagrams
   showing which elements structures contain.  The diagrams are themselves
   PHIGS structures, with a documented format.

 o the PHIGS Topology Library -- functions for
   automatically generating diagrams representing the topology of PHIGS
   structure networks. The diagrams are themselves PHIGS structures, with a
   documented format.

 o the PHIGS Menus Library -- functions for constructing
   and manipulating menus built using PHIGS structures.

 o the PHIGS Windows Library -- functions for displaying
   and viewing PHIGS structure networks in windows.

 o the PHIGS Debugger -- a tool (modelled after conventional
   programming language debuggers) for simulating the traversal of structure
   networks. The traversal may be stepped through incrementally and the state
   of the traversal inquired at any stage.

 o the PHIGS View Editor -- a utility for interactively editing and
   experimenting with viewing parameters for a scene.

PHIGS TOOLKIT INFORMATION   ** REGISTER NOW **
----------------------------------------------

We would like to encourage all people interested in the PHIGS Toolkit to
register as PHIGS Toolkit users. This will ensure that all PHIGS Toolkit
users will receive notice of new versions, course dates, bug reports and
any other useful information.  Please send the following information to
phigstoolkit@uk.ac.man.cs.

   Name:
   Organisation:
   email:
   Telephone/FAX:
   PHIGS implementations used:

Even if the PHIGS Toolkit is not currently available for your particular
PHIGS implementation, please register. We are currently working on ports to
several other PHIGS implementations and it would be very useful to know
what the demand is for different versions.

HOW TO OBTAIN THE PHIGS TOOLKIT
-------------------------------

The PHIGS Toolkit is available from two sites in the UK:

PTK from Kent
-------------

The PHIGS Toolkit is available from HENSA (Higher Education National 
Software Archive) at the University of Kent.

The HENSA Service at the University of Kent can be accessed in a number 
of ways:

Interactive
-----------

There is a friendly interactive interface which has a useful find
utility for locating software.  Connect to unix.hensa.ac.uk and log
in as "archive" for an interactive interface to the HENSA archive.  
Connections can be made using telnet (unix.hensa.ac.uk) and X.29 
across JANET (uk.ac.hensa.unix, DTE 000049200900).

anonymous ftp
-------------

Using DARPA FTP connect to the machine unix.hensa.ac.uk and
login as "anonymous", giving your email address as the password.

guest NI-FTP]
Using Blue Book NI-FTP with the following:

address: uk.ac.hensa.unix
login: guest
path: <ARCHIVE>/filename

eg. 	% fcp -b "<ARCHIVE>/uunet/ls-lR.Z"@uk.ac.hensa.unix ls-lR.Z
User name on uk.ac.hensa.unix? guest
Password on uk.ac.hensa.unix? jn@ukc.ac.uk

email server
------------

Send a message to "archive@unix.hensa.ac.uk" containing the 
string "help" for details on how to use it.

Any general queries regarding the HENSA service at The University of
Kent should be directed to hensa@unix.hensa.ac.uk, queries specific to
the Netlib service should be sent to netlib-admin@unix.hensa.ac.uk and
stuff concerning the source archive to archive-admin@unix.hensa.ac.uk.

The relevant files for the PHIGS Toolkit on HENSA are:

PTK 3.1     /pub/misc/unix/phigstk/PhigsToolkit3.1.tar.Z 
                                      for SunPHIGS 2.0 on SunOS, 
                                          HP PHIGS 2.2 on HP-UX,
                                          PEX-SI on SunOS.

PTK 2.0    /pub/misc/unix/phigstk/PhigsToolkit.tar.Z 
                                      for SunPHIGS 1.x on SunOS.
           /pub/misc/vms/phigstk/ptk.hex for DEC PHIGS 2.3A on VAX/VMS.

PTK from Manchester
-------------------

  By anonymous ftp from uk.ac.mcc.hpb. (130.88.200.7) 
  Username "anonymous", and your network address as password.
  The files are:

PTK 3.1     pub/cgu/ptk/ptk3.1.tar.Z for SunPHIGS 2.0 on SunOS, 
                                  HP PHIGS 2.2 on HP-UX,
                                  PEX-SI on SunOS.

PTK 2.0     pub/cgu/ptk/ptk.tar.Z for SunPHIGS 1.x on SunOS.

            pub/cgu/ptk/ptk.shar* for DEC PHIGS 2.3A on VMS.

(
For VMS the Toolkit is stored as a collection of SHAR files.
There are 288 files in total, each 15K in size.
They are called ptk.shar_X where X is 1 ... 288.
To rebuild the Toolkit directory structure the
files must be concatenated together and run as a command file.

   $ copy ptk.shar_%, ptk.shar_%%, ptk.shar_%%% ptk.shar
   $ @ptk.shar
)

PTK by Magnetic Tape
--------------------

Send a 1/4 inch cartridge for SunOS, and a 1/2 inch open reel magnetic tape
for VMS to:

Tim Hopkins
Computing Laboratory
University of Kent
email: trh@uk.ac.ukc

or

Toby Howard
Department of Computer Science
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingom
Tel: +44 61 275 6274
Fax: +44 61 275 6236
email: toby@uk.ac.man.cs

PHIGS TOOLKIT TRAINING COURSE
-----------------------------

A training course for users of the PHIGS Toolkit was held at the
University of Manchester on September 23rd 1992. Course materials
including four programming exercises and three step-through
tutorials are provided in this release of the Toolkit.

FUTURE WORK
-----------

The first phase of the PHIGS Toolkit does not include support for PHIGS
PLUS. Work is now underway to expand the Toolkit to include extensive
support for PHIGS PLUS functions, and the expanded PHIGS Toolkit will be
released in April 1993.

A toolkit providing support for NURBS curves and surfaces has also
been developed at Manchester, and is designed to be complementary to 
the PHIGS Toolkit. It is available from the same sites as PTK.

Toby Howard, Terry Hewitt, Gareth Williams, Steve Larkin, David Yip
University of Manchester
Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gareth Williams       Computer Science Dept, University of Manchester,
Research Assistant    Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, U.K.

           janet:       williamj@uk.ac.man.cs
           internet:    williamj%cs.man.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
           earn/bitnet: williamj%uk.ac.man.cs@UKACRL
           voice: +44 061-275-6141
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