Re: wherefore CGM?

On Thu, 5 Dec 1996, Michael H. Lambert wrote:

> > So why isn't it supported by graphical browsers?
> 
> I think it would be useful, but I wonder if people raised on 24-bit color
> depth raster graphics see any need for vector graphics.  At any rate,
> there is a MIME type for binary CGM (image/cgm).  The Pittsburgh
> Supercomputing Center (plug!) some time ago developed an application,
> gplot, to display CGM files under X, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh.
> It is freely usable and modifiable, but redistribution would require
> negotiation.  If some enterprising soul would like to try to incorporate
> it into a browser to display CGM images in line, it can be picked up from
> ftp://ftp.psc.edu/pub/gplot.

[Most people on this list probably don't know that I'm working on writing 
the GNU web browser, named E-scape.  It isn't finished yet, however.  It 
probably will only run on X11.]

I did look at CGM at one point.  However, it looks to me like getting a 
hard copy of the specs would be ridiculously expensive, and gplot doesn't 
exactly strike me as a well-written program.  For example, if I obscure 
its window on X, then expose it, the image doesn't seem to be redrawn.

E-scape will eventually support PostScript.  Is there anything that can 
be done with CGM but not Postscript?

nemo
                                                 http://www.cyclic.com/~nemo
<nemo@koa.iolani.honolulu.hi.us>                    <devnull@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
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"...For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  -- Mathew 9:13

Received on Saturday, 7 December 1996 19:18:40 UTC