With the libraries, you can create paint/draw, CAD/CAM, graphical-financial-analysis, and similar types of applications.
ObjectGraphics comes from a proud heritage. The algorithms that sit at the heart of the package, incarnate in C++ and Pascal, have already been used. For instance, Pascal versions of ObjectGraphics were used in two versions of Imsi's well-known TurboCAD product.
Object-Oriented Graphics
You can think of ObjectGraphics as a toolbox of classes for instantiating graphical objects. Classes for rectangles, ellipses, polygons, pie charts, and Bézier curves are included.
The classes provided by ObjectGraphics implement objects that, simply put, do what objects were meant to do. That is, they know how to draw and scale themselves, and they can determine whether they have
been touched by a mouse-click. Furthermore, the graphical objects come with methods for altering their appearance (e.g., you can specify the arc width and height of the corners of a rounded rectangle). The objects also have graphics utility methods (e.g., a rectangle can tell you whether a point is within its bounding region).
Drawable objects are not the only entities in ObjectGraphics. You'll also find a set of drawing tools, such as a brush object (for filling shapes), a pen object (for drawing shape outlines), and a font object (for text).
The programming environment of ObjectGraphics is a kind of 2-D world, implemented in a
GCanvas
object. The
GCanvas
object is actually a container that carries (among other things) a
GSpace
object, which understands coordinate systems. The
GCanvas
object also carries a
GPicture
object that contains all the rectangles, circles, and polygons that your program draws.
This is less complicated than it sounds. Obj
ectGraphics extends fundamental applet and application classes (
applet
and
frame
, respectively) to contain member
Canvas
objects. Consequently, little code is required to imbue your Java applet or application with object-oriented graphics capabilities. Once you've initialized the
Canvas
object, you can begin dropping graphical objects into it. ObjectGraphics automatically does all the real work for you.
Nice View
For a package like ObjectGraphics to be useful, it must be accompanied by copious
source-code
examples. Fortunately, it is. The ObjectDraw sample application is the most instructive. It implements a moderately complex drawing application (or applet) that lets you create and manipulate any of the graphical objects supported by ObjectGraphics.
I discovered ObjectGraphics' mouse support while experimenting with ObjectDraw; you can, for example, pick a rectangle up, move it to a new location, and drop it. ObjectGraph
ics handles the operation smoothly.
Currently, ObjectGraphics is compatible only with Java systems based on version 1.0.2 of JavaSoft's JDK command-line development environment. (I used ObjectGraphics successfully with version 1.0 of Symantec's Visual Café.) At the time of this writing, a spokesman for Applied Visions told me that the company was watching the market's acceptance of JDK 1.1 closely and would consider updating to the new version if circumstances warranted. This is reasonable: Making ObjectGraphics dependent on JDK 1.1 features would make it unusable in virtually all current browsers.
I found working with ObjectGraphics to be straightforward, even though I experimented with a late beta version of the package. Its price of $249.95 (with source code; $99.95 without) definitely makes it worth your attention if your graphics development goes beyond text boxes and buttons.
Product Information
Applied
Visions, Inc.
Northport, NY
Phone: 516-754-4920
Fax: 516-754-1721
Internet:
http://www.avi.com
Beyond GUI Graphics
