From: Daniel Amelang <daniel.amelang@...>
Date: 2007-01-28T06:06:28+09:00
Subject: Re: Real time vector graphics

On 1/23/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> I'm planning to prototype a vector graphics Zooming User Interface using
> ruby (because it feels good and it's just a prototype - in the case that I
> elect to build the system I will probably force myself to learn a lisp and
> OpenGL or OpenVG).

Some Lisp dialect + OpenVG would be an...interesting choice for the
actual implementation. Does your choice of a Lisp dialect have
anything to due with the fact that some early ZUIs were written in a
Lisp dialect?

Also, a fast OpenVG implementation isn't (yet) readily available for
most common hardware/OS combinations out there, so you may run into
portability/speed problems with OpenVG.

>
> Has anyone tried to use the ruby bindings of Cairo? Is there an alternative?

Yes, they work great once you get them installed. Go here to find the
(very helpful) community behind them:

http://ruby-gnome2.sourceforge.jp/

Cairo would be a good choice if you need 1) high portability 2)
hardware acceleration when available 3) open-source with few licensing
restrictions (LGPL).

Cairo has an OpenGL backend, and there's been talk about writing an
OpenVG backend too. So using Cairo would mean that your code wouldn't
have to change very much as you try out different rendering targets.

> By the way, does anyone know of an online resource discussing low-level
> implementation of graphical user interfaces?

You may be interesting in the paper "Implementing a Zooming User
Interface: Experience Building Pad++" by Benderson et. al

Dan