Re: Introducing real 3d in Gnuplot (Was: Re: please try POV-Ray and VRML terminals )

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

Ethan Merritt wrote:
> On Monday 11 April 2005 09:35 am, Ga=EBl Varoquaux wrote:

[Gael: please subscribe yourself to the mailing list --- it's getting=20
cumbersome to manually approve each mail you send to it.]

>>  I think we should define a term3d api (the terminal code file .trm
>>could go in a separate directory, term3d for instance). It would
>>reproduce as much as possible the current terminal api, but in 3d
>>(positions would be given in 3d).

> Fine with me.

Dito.  We've discussed this before, and the conclusion back then was=20
similar: it'd sure make sense to do that, but at the time, nobody seemed =

in a position to actually tackle this project.

> I would prefer a different plan, that would in the end make the=20
> core code more readable.  Instead of adding lots of #ifdef....#endif
> blocks to the core routines, I'd rather create a new set of wrapper
> routines that can eventually handle both 2D and 3D terminals.

You wouldn't even necessarily have to create them --- they already=20
exist, as I pointed out earlier.  util3d.c is where the existing
routines are, and where new ones should start out.

Eventually, these routines should become the fall-back implementations=20
of the to-be-done terminal3D API, just like term.c:do_arrow() currently=20
implements arrow-drawing for all terminals that don't have their own=20
native arrows, and do_point() does the same for point symbols.