The hardware and software developments in computer graphics are discussed. Major topics include: system capabilities, hardware design, system compatibility, and software interface with the data base management system

Jones, R. H.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

NATURAL GRAPHICS
by
Richard H. Jones, Computer Systems Analyst
Business Data Systems Division
Mail Stop 179, Langley Research Center
FTS 928-2721
The computer graphics explosion has been fueled by the increased availability
of graphics hardware and software offered at affordable prices. The Langley
Research Center has been caught up in that explosion. During the past year
Langley has increased graphics hardware and software, significantly improving the
Center's graphics capabilities in both the scientific and the business environments.
Two major graphics software packages, IBM's Graphical Data Display Manager (GDDM)
and Precision Visual's DI-3000, have been acquired and placed in production here
at the Center. This document deals only with the graphics produced by the Business
Data Systems Division (BDSD) under the Management Operations Directorate.
A major component in any graphics system is the graphics hardware available
to the user community. The GDDM software package requires an IBM or IBM-compatible
computer capable of running the System/370 Instruction Set, 327X or 8100 Tele-
processing Control Unit, and 327X, 8775, 328X, 3800, or 4250 Terminal Output Devices.
It is not sufficient to know what terminals and control units are supported by GDDM;
you must also know what features and configuration supports are required. Generally
speaking,you require programed symbols and the extended function feature.
The installation of graphics hardware at BDSD had its problems. Equipment
ordered with program symbol support arrived without program symbol support, causing
some confusion and a lengthy reorder process.
Our current graphics configuration consists of the IBM 3279 Color Display
Station which is a tabletop high-resolution Color Cathode Ray Tube Display. The
3279 is classified as a raster terminal with each character containing a 9x12 point
dot matrix. For passive hard copy output we use the 3287 and 3268 Printers with
multi-color ribbon cartridges with colors red, blue, green, and black. The 3287
and 3268 are dot matrix Printers.
BDSD looked at several graphics software packages and selected a combination
of GDDM and NATURAL graphics. During the evaluation and selection period, it was
clear that all of the graphics software packages required GDDM to drive the 3279
terminals. Therefore, GDDM was an obvious choice without preempting any of the
other graphics software packages should it be determined that they are required or
desirable. The possibility exists in the future that we might acquire Precision
Visual's DI-3000 to give us compatibility with the scientific computers in the
Analysis and Computation Division (ACD). A primary reason for attaining this com-
patibility is the mass storage system which BDSD could use for storing charts and
later outputting them to passive hard copy devices, or interacting with graphics
hardware under the control of the Control Data Corporation Network Operating System
(NOS) computers.
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The software configuration required to run GDDM graphics consists of
IBM's Advanced Communications Function-Virtual Telecommunications Access Method
(ACF-VTAM) and IBM's Time Sharing Option (TSO), or Virtual Machine/Conversational
Monitor System (VM/CMS), or Customer Information Control System (CICS). GDDM
currently does not function under our teleprocessing system COM-PLETE. However,
the next release of COM-PLETE does support GDDM and the extended functions of
the 3279 terminal. Testing will be conducted to see if graphics users and general
query users can mutually co-exist in COM-PLETE before discontinuing TSO.
GDDM is a base graphics product and, as such, has many adjuncts. For the
business graphics, we selected the Interactive Chart Utility (ICU) and the
Presentation Graphics Feature (PGF). A significant problem in business graphics
is the ability to present the data to the graphics software in such a format as
to obtain the desired output graphics with little technical knowledge or effort.
To meet this requirement, BDSD selected the NATURAL graphics software package
marketed by Software AG of North America.
NATURAL graphics interfaces with ADABAS, our Data Base Management System,
at a very high level and, because we have trained over I00 employees in NATURAL
programing, it seemed natural to acquire NATURAL for our graphics. NATURAL graphics
has two verbs which allow graphics. They are 'PLOT' and 'DRAW' PLOT is used to
identify and accumulate the data points, and DRAW is used to tell the type of chart
to draw and when to draw the chart. All of the capabilities of NATURAL are
inherent in NATURAL graphics.
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