EDITORIAL
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EDITORIAL This issue contains a diverse set of truly world-wide contributions - from no fewer than seven different countries. The issue begins with two papers from the very successful EUROGRAPHICS ’87 Conference, held in Amsterdam in August. The first is an invited paper from Aart Bijl, dealing with the requirements for the nature of human and machine partners in CAD systems, and making some very interesting observations on the characteristics of the discourse between the partners. The second paper is rather less philosophical and of more immediate potential application. Fopke Klok deals with the ques- tion of how to assess the price/performance of GKS implementations. This paper was the starting point for discussions on the topic at a panel session at the conference. For more information on the conference the reader is referred to the report on it in this issue, which your chief editors carefully organised to be written by the author of the Giinter Enderle Best Paper Award. The six refereed papers in this issue span a wide range of technical interests. Two of the papers address the efficiency of algorithms built into computer graphics systems (Gourret and P d e , and Skala), both of them examining techniques related to the rendering of images and both of them using Bresenham’s algorithm as an integral part of the work. The former is of particular interest in offering algorithms potentially well suited to hardware implementation. The paper by van Liere and ten Hagen is also in the area of graphics systems design and addresses some of the questions surrounding the input model used in graphics standards and its inherent ability, or otherwise, to support well designed interac- tive systems. Two papers look at techniques to aid particular applications areas. The first, by Dubois et al, looks at applications in stereochemistry, and the second, by Richard, examines the analysis of solutions to com- plex ordinary differential equations. The final refereed contribution is a paper by Naruse et al, advccat- ing a parallel and pipelined architecture for a processor designed for efficient implementation of ray- tracing systems. In the reports section the reader’s attention is particularly drawn to the contribution by Wald- Schmidt, who addresses that well known problem of integrated text and graphics, in the TEX system. The editors apologise to V. Milanese for the problems which arose in the production of his paper for the last issue, and the reader is referred to the Errata included in this issue. Computer Graphics Forum 6(4) is the last issue of this volume, and as we reach the end of the cycle, prompts retrospection on our activities. The issue is delayed by a couple of weeks by a humcane in Bri- tain! Is this yet another product of man’s inability to hold in check scientific “advance” even though it may damage our environment immeasurably in the long term. Who cares about Ozone anyway? Let us hope that the scientific advances reported in Computer Graphics Forum are not avenues which we wiU later regret having explored. This issue a year ago carried the obituary for Giinter Enderle. Retrospection on this and other examples of the fragrle and temporary nature of our lives, should make us all stand back and decide whether the projects we see as “important” now are really the things which we would like to leave as our heritage to future generations. In more thoughtful moments while writing editorials, such as this, we are also forced to wonder whether what is written will have been worth saying for the ten or so who might be all that ever read it. Comments on this and any other matters you feel moved to raise would be greatly appreciated. Suitable letters will be published. David Arnold Behr de Ruiter
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EDITORIAL
This issue contains a diverse set of truly world-wide contributions - from no fewer than seven different countries. The issue begins with two papers from the very successful EUROGRAPHICS ’87 Conference, held in Amsterdam in August. The first is an invited paper from Aart Bijl, dealing with the requirements for the nature of human and machine partners in CAD systems, and making some very interesting observations on the characteristics of the discourse between the partners. The second paper is rather less philosophical and of more immediate potential application. Fopke Klok deals with the ques- tion of how to assess the price/performance of GKS implementations. This paper was the starting point for discussions on the topic at a panel session at the conference. For more information on the conference the reader is referred to the report on it in this issue, which your chief editors carefully organised to be written by the author of the Giinter Enderle Best Paper Award.
The six refereed papers in this issue span a wide range of technical interests. Two of the papers address the efficiency of algorithms built into computer graphics systems (Gourret and P d e , and Skala), both of them examining techniques related to the rendering of images and both of them using Bresenham’s algorithm as an integral part of the work. The former is of particular interest in offering algorithms potentially well suited to hardware implementation. The paper by van Liere and ten Hagen is also in the area of graphics systems design and addresses some of the questions surrounding the input model used in graphics standards and its inherent ability, or otherwise, to support well designed interac- tive systems.
Two papers look at techniques to aid particular applications areas. The first, by Dubois et al, looks at applications in stereochemistry, and the second, by Richard, examines the analysis of solutions to com- plex ordinary differential equations. The final refereed contribution is a paper by Naruse et al, advccat- ing a parallel and pipelined architecture for a processor designed for efficient implementation of ray- tracing systems.
In the reports section the reader’s attention is particularly drawn to the contribution by Wald- Schmidt, who addresses that well known problem of integrated text and graphics, in the TEX system. The editors apologise to V. Milanese for the problems which arose in the production of his paper for the last issue, and the reader is referred to the Errata included in this issue.
Computer Graphics Forum 6(4) is the last issue of this volume, and as we reach the end of the cycle, prompts retrospection on our activities. The issue is delayed by a couple of weeks by a humcane in Bri- tain! Is this yet another product of man’s inability to hold in check scientific “advance” even though it may damage our environment immeasurably in the long term. Who cares about Ozone anyway? Let us hope that the scientific advances reported in Computer Graphics Forum are not avenues which we wiU later regret having explored.
This issue a year ago carried the obituary for Giinter Enderle. Retrospection on this and other examples of the fragrle and temporary nature of our lives, should make us al l stand back and decide whether the projects we see as “important” now are really the things which we would like to leave as our heritage to future generations.
In more thoughtful moments while writing editorials, such as this, we are also forced to wonder whether what is written will have been worth saying for the ten or so who might be all that ever read it. Comments on this and any other matters you feel moved to raise would be greatly appreciated. Suitable letters wil l be published.
David Arnold Behr de Ruiter
