[3514] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
SOFTWARE: IPAD v0.5.0 (Intelligent vector drawing package)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sergio Masci)
Sat Oct 25 12:07:33 1997
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 25 Oct 1997 11:07:00 -0400
From: sergio@titan.demon.co.uk (Sergio Masci)
Reply-To: sergio@titan.demon.co.uk (Sergio Masci)
Reply-to: sergio@titan.demon.co.uk (Sergio Masci)
[Followups directed to comp.os.os2.apps]
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IPAD V0.5.0 (Beta) for OS/2 is now available for download. Although IPAD is a
COMMERCIAL product, the evaluation version is available for download FREE of
charge.
*********************************************************
Some very simple IPAD demos are now provided which
can be displayed on most web browsers (as animations)
without the need to install IPAD. They can also be
displayed on image viewers which are capable of
displaying GIF animations.
*********************************************************
changes since v0.4.1
====================
o Added glue point awareness to broken line edit object.
o Added ability to align objects within a group, to the left, right, top
or bottom edges or the centre (either vertically or horizontally).
o Added ability to distribute objects within a group, either vertically
or horizontally.
o Added missing glue point support to arcs, polygons and ellipses.
o Added new human readable comment operator to IPAD data file format so
that the data file can be easily scanned or edited by third party
software such as head, grep or RCS (GNU Revision Control System).
o Added draw window comment dialog to allow the file comment to be
modified.
o Fixed category related problems that caused objects to be drawn as
black.
o Added glue point awareness to category dialog and category list.
o Fixed problem with polygons not being displayed when they were first
drawn.
o Added ability for user to interactively change number of sides of
polygon.
o Fixing problem with changing properties of group (i.e. changing colour
or line thickness of selected group of objects)
o Fixed problem where some pinned menus would not change the mode of the
draw window.
o Fixed problem with objects external to a group connected to glue
points belonging to textbox, image and group objects internal to the
group, not tracking these glue points when the group was modified.
o For other changes see 'changes' file
changes since v0.4.0
====================
o Ported IPAD to SPARC Solaris 2.5 (X11 R6.3).
o For other changes see 'changes' file
changes since v0.3.3
====================
o Ported IPAD to X Windows (X11 R6.3).
o For other changes see 'changes' file
To recap:
IPAD is the multiplatform front end to a special tool to be completed some
time in the future. It currently provides most of the functionality of an
interactive GUI vector drawing package, together with some bit mapped image
handling. It allows easy editing across files using multiple overlapping
windows. The graphics objects drawn and edited by IPAD have built in
intelligence. They react to the mouse and each other so as to maximize user
productivity and reduce tedious repetitive setup sequences.
With most other packages an object must first be selected and placed into one
of many modes in order for the package to provide handles through which the
object must be manipulated. With IPAD however, simple rules govern the
behaviour of an object depending on what other objects it is touching and how
it is approached and grabbed.
Any object may be picked up and moved or its shape changed without it first
having to be selected, and if its edges are touching any other object, IPAD
will intelligently manipulate those objects in order to reduce the knock on
effects of the change. With most other packages a simple change can require a
lot of rework.
A very powerful feature of IPAD is the way it is able to manipulate groups of
selected objects. A group is not just a collection of objects, it has
properties of its own. A group can be edited like any other object. Objects
can be very easily picked up or dropped from a group. Groups can also be
opened and their contents edited in their own windows.
IPAD also has a category system that allows the user to define the properties
of an object and to override those properties in a derived object. Complex
objects can thus be built by grouping simpler objects and assigning them
properties. This makes it a very simple matter to create a set of component
objects which can be held in a template window, copied across into the working
drawing and the properties modified to suit the working drawing.
IPAD supports printers using PCL 5 (most HP), ESC-P2 (most Epson), PostScript
and anything else via ppm or png. It has been designed from the ground up to
be fast and responsive. The base system is a 486DX 33MHz + 8MB RAM + ISA video
card.
IPAD will (in the future) provide a mechanism to drive third party backend
software (e.g. code generators, state machine generators etc.) For now you are
restricted to just drawing with it. Since IPAD is a COMMERCIAL product, its
source code will not be made available.
IPAD currently provides the same GUI interface on SPARC Solaris 2.5, Linux
2.0.x (X11 and SVGALIB), MSDOS 6.2, OS/2 Warp, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and
Windows NT 3.51.
The Linux version is distributed as two separate ELF executables, one being
the SVGALIB executable (which handles the screen directly) and the other being
the X11 R6.3 executable. The SVGALIB executable will only run on machines that
have an SVGA card that is supported by SVGALIB 1.2.10. Anyone having problems
with ELF, SVGALIB or X11 R6.3 that would like to take a look at IPAD is
advised to look at the MSDOS version.
IPAD is available from
primary (high availability) site
http://www.demon.co.uk/titan
secondary site
193.62.101.218 (via anonymous FTP)
ftp://193.62.101.218/pub/IPAD (via browser)
Send feedback and questions to
sergio@titan.demon.co.uk
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