new PostScript/raster graphical editor available

[roger davis]

A new OpenWindows PostScript-based graphical editor named 'ice' is now
available for anonymous ftp from Internet host lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu
(129.236.10.30).

ice (Image Composition Environment) is an imaging tool that allows raster
images to be combined with a wide variety of PostScript annotations in
WYSIWYG fashion via X11 imaging routines and NeWS PostScript rasterizing.

It is commonly used by scientific staff here to overlay pre-processed
Landsat-type images with annotations such as map contours, symbols, text
labels, etc. The final composite image may be saved in either rasterfile
or PostScript format for output to a hardcopy device.

Individual graphical elements (rasters, pre-existing PostScript images,
text labels, vectors, curves, symbols, polygons and Cartesian axes) are
stored on an object list. Each object has a number of attributes that can
be independently set (e.g., font, line width, color, etc.) or made to
reference a global value.  Objects can be dragged across the display with
the mouse, scaled, rotated, etc. They can be drawn in any sequence to
control the manner in which superimposed components overlay one another.
They can be grouped into composite objects which can then undergo many of
the same kinds of operations as a unit.

The software requires OpenWindows 2.0 and Sun C++ 2.0. (It may well build
under GNU g++ but I haven't tried.) It also requires two other locally
developed packages, the LXT library (an Xlib-based toolkit) and a small
C++ class library. All files (pub/ice.tar.Z, pub/lxt.tar.Z and
pub/ldgoc++.tar.Z) are available in compressed tar format. pub/ice.tar.Z
contains a README that gives installation instructions, as well as an
extensive man page (ice.1). All software is the property of Columbia
University and may not be redistributed without permission.