[3804] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
ANNOUNCE: IPAD v0.5.3 (Intelligent vector drawing package)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sergio Masci)
Tue Feb 10 04:38:10 1998
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 10 Feb 1998 02:04:00 -0500
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 V0.5.3 (Beta) for Solaris 2.5 (SPARC), Linux 2.0.x (Intel), OS/2 WARP,
NT 3.51, Win 95, Win 3.1 and MSDOS 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.
*********************************************************
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 even where there are recursive dependencies. 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 sites
sunsite.unc.edu (and mirrors - linux distributions only)
pub/Linux/apps/graphics/draw
hobbes.nmsu.edu (and mirrors - OS/2 distribution only)
pub/os2/apps/graphics/draw
Send feedback and questions to
ipad@titan.demon.co.uk
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