[gfrancis: gvx]

[mbp]

Mark,
OK ... I think I can install a copy of geomview. Tomorrow is a test. I 
will take the gv0.tar.Z file to Beckman and unpack it on one of their 
Irises. 

However, ... I am starting to collect some impressions, which I will 
send you over the time. I'm beginning to learn the internal logic of 
the package, but I begin to see just how difficult it is to manage.

For example: I'm glad I never throw anything away. I quickly notices that
while notknotflythrough IS in gv0  it's not in gvL (the package Stuart
lent along with Andy). The latter
needed only putting  .../geom/dodec.vect  in the right place. In return,
gvL has the sphere eversion stuff in it and lots of different group
files that look important. So I'll keep both around on mathIris and 
this way learn how it works.

I find it easier to have gv on my path and execute it while I am in 
the directory that has the file I'm trying to look at. The difference
is somewhat like going to a library, and going into the stack and 
taking a book down and looking at it, instead of trying to guess whether
a title I give to the girl at the front desk is really what I want to see.

There is one really annoying feature in the istropic geometry switch in 
gv1.3, and that is when you switch geometry the particular view of the 
world that took 20 minutes to get just right, is destroyed and the default
values are reinserted. 

It would be much nicer to leave resetting to the reset button and just
switch the geometry, like when you change the lighting, it doesn't change
the window, the position, etc.

The `inapplicable-button-syndrome continues to annoy, but after you 
explained it to me I am aware that there's no help but to get used to
it. 

More problematic is the fact that there does not seem to be a way of
seeing the entire data set in one view (however non-euclidean, non-hyperbolic,
and non-elliptic that might be). I think that once I figure out whether
such a view is even possible with gv, I will have to learn how to write
.geomviews so that when a display list is first installed, it comes on 
in a total way (afterall, all the display lists are finite.).

Well, enough for today, more tomorrow.
Ciao
 
George