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 gps(F)                          19 June 1992                          gps(F)


 Name

    gps - graphical primitive string, format of graphical files

 Description

    GPS is a format used to store graphical data.  Several routines have been
    developed to edit and display GPS files on various devices as have some
    higher level graphics programs such as plot (in stat(1G)) and vtoc (in
    toc(1G)) produce GPS format output files.

    A GPS is composed of five types of graphical data or primitives:

    GPS primitives

    lines     The lines primitive has a variable number of points from which
              zero or more connected line segments are produced.  The first
              point given produces a move to that location.  (A move is a
              relocation of the graphic cursor without drawing.)  Each suc-
              cessive point produces a line segment from the previous point.
              Parameters are available to set color, weight, and style.

    arc       The arc primitive has a variable number of points to which a
              curve is fitted.  The first point produces a move to that
              point.  If only two points are included, a line connecting the
              points will result; if there are three points, a circular arc
              is drawn through the points; and if there are more than three
              points, lines connect the points.  (In the future, a spline
              will be fitted to the points if they number greater than
              three.)  Parameters are available to set color, weight, and
              style.

    text      The text primitive draws characters.  It requires a single
              point which locates the center of the first character to be
              drawn.  Parameters are color, font, textsize, and textangle.

    hardware  The hardware primitive draws hardware characters or gives con-
              trol commands to a hardware device.  A single point locates the
              start of the hardware string.

    comment   The  comment primitive is an integer string that is included in
              a GPS file but causes nothing to be displayed.  All GPS files
              begin with a comment of zero length.

    GPS parameters

    color     color is an integer value set for arc, lines, and text primi-
              tives.

    weight    weight is an integer value set for arc and lines primitives to
              indicate line thickness.  The value 0 is  narrow weight; 1 is
              bold; and 2 is medium weight.

    style     style is an integer value set for lines and arc primitives to
              give one of the five line styles that can be drawn on TEKTRONIX
              4010 series storage tubes.  They are:

                 0     solid
                 1     dotted
                 2     dot dashed
                 3     dashed
                 4     long dashed

    font      font is an integer value set for text primitives to designate
              the text font to be used in drawing a character string.
              (Currently font is expressed as a four-bit weight value fol-
              lowed by a four-bit style value.)

    textsize  textsize is an integer value used in text primitives to express
              the size of the characters to be drawn.  textsize represents
              the height of characters in absolute universe-units and is
              stored at one-fifth this value in the size-orientation (so)
              word.

    textangle textangle is a signed integer value used in text primitives to
              express rotation of the character string around the beginning
              point.  textangle is expressed in degrees from the positive x-
              axis and can be a positive or negative value.  It is stored in
              the size-orientation (so) word as a value 256/360 of its abso-
              lute value.

    Organization

    GPS primitives are organized internally as follows:

              lines        cw  points  sw
              arc          cw  points  sw
              text         cw  point  sw  so  [string]
              hardware     cw  point  [string]
              comment      cw  [string]

    cw        cw is the control word and begins all primitives.  It consists
              of four bits that contain a primitive-type code and twelve bits
              that contain the word count for that primitive.

    point(s)  point(s) is one pair or more of integer coordinates.  text and
              hardware primitives only require a single point.  point(s) are
              values within a Cartesian plane or universe having 64K (-32K to
              +32K) points on each axis.

    sw        sw is the style word and is used in lines, arc, and text primi-
              tives.  For all three, eight bits contain color information.
              In arc and lines, eight bits are divided as four bits weight
              and four bits style.  In the text primitive, eight bits of sw
              contain the font.

    so        so is the size orientation word used in text primitives.  Eight
              bits contain text size and eight bits contain text rotation.

    string    string is a null-terminated character string.  If the string
              does not end on a word boundary, another null is added to the
              GPS file to insure word-boundary alignment.

 See also

    graphics(ADM), stat(ADM), toc(ADM)


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