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This is the first edition of the combined IGWP and AGOCG Newsletter, and is now called the Graphics Newsletter. It replaces the previous IUSC Information Graphics Working Party Newsletter.
The Graphics Newsletter is a joint effort between AGOCG and IGWP and endeavours to supply the community with up-to-date information on plans and developments in computer graphics. This includes bulk purchase of products (hardware and software) for the academic community, UNIRAS developments, PC Graphics, Image Processing, Graphics Standards, and future plans.
The Chairman of AGOCG is Professor Bob Hopgood, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, SERC. The Chairman of IUSC IGWP is Chris Whitaker, Cranfield Institute of Technology. The Graphics Coordinator is Dr Anne Mumford, Loughborough University of Technology. The Editor of this Newsletter is Dr Rae Earnshaw. University of Leeds.
Correspondence, comments, contributions and articles are welcomed on any graphics matter and should be sent to the Editor preferably in email form.
The Advisory Group on Computer Graphics had its first meeting on September 14 1989. We advise SERC via the Computing Facilities Committee of the Engineering Board and we advise the Computer Board via SISC. CFC has agreed that 3 man years of effort at RAL can be committed to work proposed by AGOCG and the Computer Board has indicated that it will fund a similar level of activities in the universities. So we have the possibility of getting some work done and improving the graphics infrastructure in the HEIs. Our role is to be aware of advances in computer graphics, identify requirements for the community, recommend actions concerning purchase, support, developments etc and ensure that education and training facilities are available to make those decisions effective. AGOCG is not another research funding body, its role is to ensure that the community has the right graphics infrastructure. Consequently, contracts placed in the community are likely to be quite specific.
Initially, there are a number of loose ends to tie up with previous activities (GKS, CGM, UNIRAS) and our aim there will be to consolidate what is currently available and improve the interworking. We have a special brief to look at standards and will be looking at what should be done concerning PHIGS early on and tracking future developments. In some cases, we will need to decide on a subset, level, or profile of a system to standardise on. As a result, we are anxious not to make decisions which are at variance with other bodies. Both the European Community and the USA have similar activities in progress.
The membership of AGOCG includes representatives from the Computer Board, CFC, IUCC, IUSC, SERC's Central Computing, and the other Research Councils. We hope to persuade other bodies to commit resources to the activity which could add to the membership. We have co-opted a real user to ensure that we are not working totally in the dark. We have a vacancy for another. Details of members will be given in a future edition of the Newsletter.
I hope that AGOCG can be of benefit to the community. It will need to have input from the community for that to happen. The Computer Board has appointed Anne Mumford as Coordinator. Either Anne or myself will be pleased to hear people's views on subjects related to computer graphics.
FRODO, as well as being the hero of a certain book, is also the name of a powerful molecular graphics program in the public domain. It allows fitting of molecules and fragments of molecules to the electron density calculated from X-ray diffraction data, and is mainly used for large molecule work, such as protein structures. It was written many years ago for the only workstation powerful enough to provide its interaction demands, the Evans & Sutherland PS300 series. It was later ported to other workstations such as the Silicon Graphics IRIS. As far as I know, it has not yet been ported to the new workstations now available from DEC. These are much cheaper, but I don't know if they have the power or interactive capabilities to drive FRODO.
Does anyone know if such a port has been done, or if not, is feasible? I feel such a port would benefit many in the HE sector.
At last it's happened! After seven very successful editions of the IGWP Newsletter, the IGWP (Information Graphics Working Party) is now working with the new AGOCG to bring you this new Graphics Newsletter. We believe that this will broaden the scope of the Newsletter to keep the British Higher Education and Research communities abreast of the latest news and developments in computer graphics in the UK. The IGWP is grateful that SERC have offered to fund the production of the Graphics Newsletter in future, and is being distributed with SERC's Engineering Computing Newsletter.
After years of being treated as a Cinderella, 18 months ago the computer graphics community received a windfall in the form of the state of the art UNIRAS software from a company that understands graphics standards, the Computer Board coordinating the funding of the software costing 3/4 million pounds. This has recently been reinforced with the availability of the whole of the new range of UNIRAS version 6 software to the community. The IGWP was wholly responsible for the evaluation and negotiations for UNIRAS. Subsequently, the IGWP worked closely with CHEST to develop the relationship with UNIRAS. Whilst this continues successfully, the IGWP now enters another chapter in its short history by interworking with AGOCG and the Graphics Coordinator.
Good and effective liaison is vital and is very much in the interests of the Higher Education/Research community. In total there are three common members of the working parties, Ken Brodlie (University of Leeds), John Owen (AFRC), and Chris Whitaker (Cranfield). This helped to form a good bond at the first AGOCG meeting on 14 September.
A number of areas of common interest arose at this meeting:
As reported in the last IGWP Newsletter, negotiations were successfully completed during discussions involving UNIRAS, CHEST and the IGWP in late June for the UNIRAS version 6 modules. The community now has ready access to all of UNIRAS's current software although modest extra funding will be requested from establishments wishing to acquire the USEIT UIMS. Distribution of the subroutines is proceeding at the time of writing and manuals are being supplied largely from MCC.
The IGWP is working with SERC in making an independent evaluation of USEIT, particularly in relation to other UIMS. CHEST have recently sent out a letter to UNIRAS sites in the community giving details of how to acquire USEIT.
The two day User Group meeting held at Cranfield at the end of August was thought to be successful, being attended by 86 members of the CHEST supported community who easily outnumbered the commercial users. There was a strong emphasis on graphics standards, all 4 of the user papers featuring them and there was a further talk about UNIRAS' s position in relation to graphics standards.
The working party is continuing to monitor graphics hardware costs and image processing systems, and Les Zieleznik is continuing his survey of PC graphics programs.
As noted in the article News from the Graphics Coordinator, Anne Mumford is collecting information on the versions of GKS available on the PC. WATCOM GKS (running with the WATFOR compiler) is available on the IBM PC at Liverpool. This is level 0a. It has a Site Licence and also manuals. Steve Morgan is now looking for a GKS level 1c which would be compatible with the Prospero compiler. It is intended for research applications.
Yes, I really do exist! The Advisory Group on Computer Graphics (AGOCG) has now had its first meeting, accompanied by a huge weight of paper. This report is to let you know how I see things going and what I will be doing as a result of this first meeting.
I would like to see my role as instigating things which have a life beyond the two year period of my appointment. There are lots of things going on around the place in the community which are not widely known about. I hope to manage to persuade people that their work has a wide benefit and to facilitate the spread of information. If there is anything that you feel you are doing which might have a value outside your institution let me know. I may be able to help you to share your expertise with the community. It is by doing this that we will move forward more rapidly. With so much software, hardware and users to support we cannot afford not to work together.
I hope that people will see my role as a positive one and not as a threat to anyone. I hope to facilitate activities and to get things going, not to stand on people's toes. Those of you who know me may wonder if this is possible - I will do the best I can! Please do take advantage of this initiative which is being supported financially and in manpower by the Computer Board and the SERC.
So, what will I be getting up to in the next few months? Well, quite a lot by the look of the actions out of the first meeting! The main areas of work are listed below.
This is obviously a hot topic in the community. The move to version 6 and the start of a UNIRAS service in many places this year is causing problems for support staff. This is due to the comprehensive nature of the software and its very popularity. I will be looking at putting forward a proposal for a package of training material for UNIRAS. This is likely to include slides, OHP view graphs, video, documentation, help in conversion from other packages. I intend to call a meeting in mid-November to discuss what this package should look like. If you have any views please let me know. If you wish to be involved in the meeting then please contact me. Offers of assistance or advice are very welcome.
It is also hoped that a member of the UNIRAS staff will be made available to the community and based at Cranfield for part of the week. This will give us a direct access to someone who has our interests and needs as a direct responsibility. This sounds excellent and we hope to bring you news of this soon.
We are looking to wrap up the GKS-UK projects. These cover the initial GKS implementation and the 3D extensions. The GKS-UK source is being brought up to full conformance testing requirements at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL GKS). The GKS-3D extensions have been developed at the University of Manchester in the Computer Graphics Unit. It is hoped to combine the work and to make the source code available to the community. The source will be accompanied by the available device drivers, a utility to extract the 2D source from the 3D source, and a Pascal interface.
I hope to look at PC versions of GKS. Does anyone have any experience of any packages? Please let me know if you do.
As you know this is my pet topic. The CGM project at Loughborough is now coming towards an end. We have found from experience that not all implementations that are around are complete and some have errors. We feel that there is a big need for testing facilities. The AGOCG is going to encourage the setting up of a testing service in the UK. We feel that it is vital that the community has confidence in the products they buy. The AGOCG wants to see CGM support as a feature of all graphics products which are involved in community deals. We are also looking at various translation tools which might be useful and a number of CGM drivers. We will encourage CHEST deals to be made on useful items.
I am going to be looking at what is available on the market - is a community deal of interest to you? Let me know if it is and also any experiences of PHIGS products that you may have. We also see this as an area in which some introductory documentation would be useful for both users and support staff. We hope to have this developed for the community to use.
This is the Standard Generalized Markup Language which is a standard for document exchange. CGMs can be included in the document. We are looking at this as a means of exchanging the AGOCG documents. We do appreciate that you will want translators to take the transferred information into a form you know and love. If anyone has any experience or views on this then let me know.
We are also looking at high quality colour plotters and a possible deal for the community. Any views? Would you like one?
So, as you can see, I have plenty to occupy myself with for the time being. I really would welcome your views on these and other matters. I look forward to hearing from you. The next AGOCG meeting is on 13 December, 1989.
