Re: Thanks for ePiX !

["Andrew D. Hwang" <ahwang@mathcs.holycross.edu>]

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, kib2 wrote:

Hi Christophe,

Thank you for your comments and feedback!

> I have some questions for you:
>
> 1. Do you project a GUI for ePiX (I'm thinking about the new QT4 engine that
> include Postscript viewing (more details on
> http://doc.trolltech.com/4.0/qt4-arthur.html)) ?
>
The short answer is "no", partly because (conceptually, at least) Version
1.x draws figures element-by-element as the input file is read. Thus, a
GUI would need to handle basic details (scene representation, output
streams, etc.) that ePiX should handle but can't.  With Version 2.x (in
progress), a GUI becomes reasonable, but I haven't seriously planned that
far ahead.


> 2. Is there a simpler way to move an object than moving the camera (i.e if T
> is a triangle, using T.rotate(PI/3)) ?
>
Again, "yes" in Version 2.x, but not really in Version 1.x. The horrible
truth:  ePiX 1.x has no triangle class at all, only a function that draws
a triangle given three vertices. As a compromise, you might transform
vertices directly. That's not pretty, but should work all right for simple
figures.

ePiX 2.x, meanwhile, draws 3-D triangles and quadrilaterals pretty well,
but as yet has no capability for labels and other typography.

> 3. Can you write an index with all the classes and functions inside ePiX in
> the future ?
>
Yes, I'll compile a "reference manual" (and a more complete index!) in the
documentation.


> 4. What do you think of the Asymptote package ( not tested )?
>
It looks *very* nice, but I haven't tried it personally. Getting it to
build seemed to be a 2-3 day project (make a thorough back up of a machine
I rely on crucially, install a distribution that uses gcc-3.4, install the
boost libraries...).


> If I can help you on something, let me know (I'm only starting with C++...):
>
Coding help and design suggestions are always welcome! The sources are at
savannah:

  http://savannah.nongnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/epix/epix/

Please create a savannah profile (if you don't have one) and email me your
username; I'll add you to the project. I'll also set up a development
mailing list at savannah.

Best regards,

Andy

Andrew D. Hwang			ahwang@mathcs.holycross.edu
Department of Math and CS	http://math.holycross.edu/~ahwang
College of the Holy Cross	(508) 793-2458 (Office: 320 Swords)
Worcester, MA, 01610-2395	(508) 793-3530 (fax)