From: rthomson@mesa.dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson)
Subject: Re: ftp'able document
Reply-To: rthomson@dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson)
Organization: Design Systems Division, Evans & Sutherland, SLC, UT
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 20:11:25 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.191011.2282@natinst.com>
	fellow@natinst.com (Osbert Tan) writes:
>I have been trying to locate the following two references mentioned in
>the PEX-SI User Guide but to no avail,
>
>1. ISO/IEC 9592-1:1989(E), Information Processing Systems - Computer
>Graphics -- Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System (PHIGS),
>Part 1: Functional Description,
>
>2. Draft proposed PHIGS PLUS, ISO/IEC SC24-N454 (20 March 1990).

These are standards documents and can be obtained from the standards
bodies (ANSI - American National Standards Institute/ISO -
International Organization for Standardization) as well as some third party
sources.  The FAQ mentioned one source for PHIGS standards documents;
I've included that section below.  As for the PHIGS-PLUS standard,
there is a more recent version than the 20 March 1990 version.  I have
in my manual:

    ISO/IEC 9592-4:199x Draft International Standard, 14 February 1991

I'm not sure if this vote has been taken to move the specification
from DIS into a fully-approved standard.  The preface on my copy says:

    ``ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a
    worldwide federation of national standards bodies.  The work of
    ppreparing International Standards is normally carried out through
    ISO technical committees.  Every member body interested in a
    subject for which a technical committee has been established has
    the right to be represented on that committee.  International
    organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liasison with
    ISO, also take part in the work.

    Draft International Standards adopted by the technical committees
    are circulated to the member bodies for approval before their
    acceptance as International Standards by the ISO Council.  They
    are approved in accordance with ISO procedures requiring at least
    75% approval by the member bodies voting.

    The document editor for this Standard was Tom Gaskins, whose work
    was funded by Sun Microsystems Inc.''

						-- Rich

Subject:  9)  Obtaining Graphics Standards (GKS, PHIGS, etc.)
From: jch@Stardent.COM (Jan "Yon" Hardenbergh)
Date: 12 Feb 91 19:27:53 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.graphics

GKS - Graphical Kernal System - geometric graphics system
CGM - Computer Graphics Metafile - archive of graphics commands - very
      useful for plotting.
PHIGS - the best graphics standard!  3D geometric graphics with lighting
      and shading and neat primitives to draw fancy pictures.
If you are looking for a broad overview of graphics standards you might
try this:

>   Guidelines for determining when to use GKS and when to use PHIGS
>   Bettels, J.; Bono, P.R.; McGinnis, E.; Rix, J.
>   Author Affil:  Digital Equipment Corp., Geneva, Switzerland
>   Source: Comput. Graph. Forum (Netherlands)  vol.7, no.4,    pp.: 347-54
>   Publication Year: Dec. 1988
>   (29 Refs)
>   Abstract:  GKS,  GKS-3D, and PHIGS are all approved ISO standards for the
> application  programmer  interface.  How  do system analysts or programmers
> decide which standard to use for their application? The authors discuss the
> range  of  application  requirements  likely to be encountered, explore the
> suitability  of  GKS and PHIGS for satisfying these requirements, and offer
> guidelines to aid in the decision process. 

I know I've seen other overviews of graphics standards. Just none recently.

There are a couple of books on CGM and GKS, but I do not have the
references written down.

As, for PHIGS, you can get the standard itself from ANSI in New York.
(212) 354-3300.  [The following table gives the ANSI standard numbers
corresponding to the PHIGS standards:

	ANSI X3.144-1988	ISO 9592 parts 1, 2 and 3 for PHIGS
	ANSI X3.144.1		ISO 9593-1 for PHIGS FORTAN binding
	ANSI X3.144.3		ISO 9593-3 for PHIGS Ada binding
	ANSI X3.144.4		ISO 9593-4 for PHIGS C binding

--RT]  They will also have the GKS and CGM specs.

-Jan "YON" Hardenbergh       jch@stardent.com         (508)-371-9810x261
Stardent Computer, 6 N.E. Tech Center, 521 Virginia Rd,Concord, MA 01742
-- 
	Repeal the personal income tax; vote Libertarian in 1992.
Disclaimer: I speak for myself, except as noted; Copyright 1992 Rich Thomson
UUCP: ...!uunet!dsd.es.com!rthomson			Rich Thomson
Internet: rthomson@dsd.es.com	IRC: _Rich_		PEXt Programmer
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.pex