[ REQ 5106]: Geomview for X version 1.5

["Daeron Meyer" <daeron>]

Dear Geomview Users,

The staff of the Geometry Center is proud to announce that a
prerelease of Geomview version 1.5, an interactive viewer for 3-D
and higher dimensional geometric objects, is now available. We
are especially pleased to announce that this is the first non-beta
release of geomview for the X Window System.

We are currently only informing geomview users on the xgeomview-beta
mailing list in the hope that you will pick up this prerelease right
away to test it out. We would appreciate speedy feedback and bug
reports for anything we may have missed. If everything goes well, we
will present this release along with a general announcement to the
public within a week or so.

IMPORTANT
=========
Any bug reports, comments or questions you have should STATE CLEARLY
that you are BETA TESTING THE 1.5 PRELEASE, should specify what type
of machine you are on, and should be sent to software@geom.umn.edu.

You may obtain either the binary or source code release of geomview
via ftp from ftp.geom.umn.edu:

There are three binary releases of geomview (for Sun4, HP, and Linux)
available in the following files:

/priv/daeron/bin/geomview-sun4.x11.tar.Z
/priv/daeron/bin/geomview-linux.x11.tar.Z
/priv/daeron/bin/geomview-hp.x11.tar.Z

The source release is available in:

/priv/daeron/src/geomview-src.tar.Z


Best Regards,
Daeron Meyer
daeron at geom.umn.edu


P.S.

Here is a list of CHANGES occuring from version 1.4.3 to version 1.5:
=====================================================================

   Source distribution now includes support for generic X/Motif
	(Sun, HP-UX, Linux, probably other systems) as well as SGI
	and NeXT graphics.

   Substantial improvements to the 3D graphics in the X11 version of Geomview:
	- Uses X Shared Memory extension (when available) for
		quick rendering of polygons and lines to X11 framebuffer
	- Support for 1, 8, or 24 bit deep X displays added
	- Optional dithering for 8 bit displays
	- Dithers 1 bit displays
	- Optional zbuffering (for hidden line/surface removal) added
	- Smooth shading added
	- Support for line thickness > 1 added
	- Clipping planes added

   Numerous fixes/additions to the X11 Geomview Motif interface:
	- Window positioning commands work (under most window managers)
		except for the Load and Save panels
	- fixed edit menu
	- added ability to type in RGB values in color panel
	- added numeric displays for sliders on material panel
	- added option menu on camera panel for choosing
		hidden surface removal method
	- added toggle button on camera panel for activating/deactivating
		dithering of colors (only shows up in 8 bit mode)

   Unlike the beta-release X graphics, the new version transmits complete
	images, not polygons, to the X server.  It's faster for local
	displays; can be slow when the display-to-geomview connection
	traverses a slow network link.

   Geomview motions:

     INCOMPATIBLE bug fix in the GCL command language:
	Motions defined with respect to the object itself, e.g.
	 (transform world world world translate 0 0 1)
	had been interpreted with the wrong sign.  This is now fixed.
	Application programs which depended on this bug (including gvclock
	and stereo) need to change accordingly.

     Documentation fix: GCL rotations (transform/transform-incr/transform-set)
	are given in radians, not degrees.

     New motion-animation commands:
	The (transform ...) command now allows a simple form of animation.
	If given an amount of time, it arranges to move by exactly that amount
	during approximately that many seconds, either at constant speed
	or with smooth start and stop.

     Scaling now happens with respect to the selected "center" object,
	not the object's own origin.  There's a new (transform ... scale ...)
	subcommand.

   Keyboard input:
     New (event-keys) and (event-pick) commands can suppress geomview
	interpreting keyboard input as commands and rightmouse-clicks as
	picking, in graphics windows.  Useful for modules which want to impose
	their own interpretations on events.

   Non-Euclidean spaces:
     Newly created cameras now correctly live in the current (possibly
	non-Euclidean) space.   They had been always Euclidean,
	despite misleading window titles.
	
   N-D projection:
     New "nOFF" object is a collection of 0-, 1- or 2-dimensional polygons
	in N-dimensional space.
     N-D coloring projection axes can be with respect to any coordinate system.

   Two-sided surface coloring:
     The "backdiffuse" material field, if defined, is interpreted as the
	reverse-side's diffuse color.  Works whenever software shading
	is enabled (i.e. always on generic-X systems); also works on those
	SGI systems whose hardware supports two-sided GL lighting.  There's
	no control panel for this feature yet but GCL commands can, e.g.
	(merge-ap world { material { backdiffuse .7 .5 0 } })


   There were a number of portability improvements in the X version,
	fixing bugs for Sun/Solaris, HP-UX, Linux, DEC OSF, AIX.

   Code is now more careful to avoid floating-point exceptions, which
	cause trouble on some machines.

   Yacc and lex, which were needed for one library, are no longer essential.