Windows and standards.

[Daryl McDaniel]

> 
> I'm afraid it's just a little early for standardising I/O
> for bitmap displays.
> 
> Now, what should we choose as a standard?
> The highest-level one thinkable? ...
> A low-level one? So that I can't use all that truly great stuff
> that my machine implements?
> 
> -- 
> 	Jack Jansen, jack at mcvax.UUCP
> 	The shell is my oyster.

There already exists a standard for talking to graphics displays,
whether bitmap or vector.  This standard is embodied in the GSX and
VDI "machine-independant" packages (I don't know exactly what the
standard is called) available from several companies including a
company localy called "GSS, or Graphics Software Systems".

These packages and the standard upon which they are based define many
higher level functions which may be done in the most efficient manner
for your hardware.  For the case where ones hardware supports a
function which GSX doesn't address, there is a function which allows a
command to be given directly to the hardware.

I have written several programs using GSX and VDI and have had very
little difficulty producing single versions of the programs which run
on:
	IBM-PC,XT,AT	Zenith Z100,Z150	HP-150	TI-Professional
	ATT-6300	Burroughs B25		Tek 6200	VAX

Daryl V. McDaniel
GWD, Sustaining Engineering		tektronix!hammer!darylm
Tektronix, Inc.
(503) 685-2298

The above views are my own and may or may not bear any resembelance to
any policy or view of Tektronix or any one else in the real world.