From graphics-request at octave dot org Mon Mar  6 12:34:16 2006
Subject: Re: Object Graphics v0.3
From: "Shai Ayal" <shaiay at gmail dot com>
To: "Bill Denney" <denney at seas dot upenn dot edu>
Cc: graphics at octave dot org
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 20:31:57 +0200

Bill,

Thanks for the time & thought you invested in this.

I have a few comments:

Units: Matlab supports a multitude of units -- pixel,
point,cm,inch,... So I'm not sure what the minimal requirements should
be.

ticklength -- while specifying it in percent of the axis scale seems
natural, It turns out to be "ugly" -- some things just look better if
they are a fixed number of pixels whatever the axes scale is. It's
like  text -- it's size has to specified in points/pixels and not in
axis units.

3D: I am not planning to implement it soon, so I have many suggestions :)
I think that you should add all the camera, lights etc.. properties.
Most 3D tool kits support it anyway (I know OpenGL does), so it really
does not complicate the code much.

layering:
I think it would be more clear to write first child on the bottom,
last child on the top

legend object:
This is my creation and does not exist in matlab. Of course I am
flattered that you like it, but I think you should reconsider whether
it should be in the spec.

compatibility:
We should probably add some query functions like:
propnames(handle) to return call array of strings with the names of
all properties,
isproperty(handle,propname) to find out of the object supports the property.
the user can use these to develop cross-backend apps.

Also, I think that get(handle) should return a structure with fields
corresponding to the properties and values corresponding to their
value, like in matlab

Thanks again,
Shai

On 3/6/06, Bill Denney <denney at seas dot upenn dot edu> wrote:
> I've finished the modifications to Object Graphics v0.3.  To see the full
> current text, see http://wiki.octave.org/wiki.pl?ObjectGraphics
>
> To see the changes since version 0.2.2, see
> http://wiki.octave.org/wiki.pl?action=browse&diff=1&id=ObjectGraphics&revision=24&diffrevision=16
>
> I hope to finish the first implementation of the full system using
> Sebastien Loisel's Octave Workshop sometime this week so that I will
> hopefully see any gotchas in the standard.  After that, I hope that it
> will be ready for a look by the maintainers list.
>
> Please let me know if you see any deficiencies remaining.
>
> Bill
>
> --
> "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely
> unintentional side effect."
>   -- Linus Torvalds, NY Times Magazine 9/28/2003
>
>