Application Data Structures Research Articles

A Picture-Building System

The picture-building system (PBS) deals with the problem of creating and manipulating data structures for applications using computer graphics. PBS has a data definition facility that enables one to specify structures needed for a given application, a manipulation facility for loading and editing the data, and displaying the image stored in the structures. The structures are defined in a relational data base and allow graphical attributes to be specified in the same way as nongraphical attributes. There is a deliberate attempt to separate data from programs which is in accord with other data-base developments. It is also possible to mix text and vector data with raster scan data which we have found to be very useful in some graphical applications. Some examples and a brief description of our color display system will be given.