The Display Protocol. A Reference for the Protocol

Mednieks, Z.R. (1981). The Display Protocol. A Reference for the Protocol. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-81-112

Preview

Text WP-81-112.pdf Download (248kB) | Preview

Abstract

The Display Protocol is a unified graphics system for use at IIASA. It is based on existing systems to some extent. It consists of a device independent protocol interpreter and a small set of device dependent routines. Adapting it to a wide range of output devices requires little programmer effort. It is different from most existing systems in that it also handles devices with no graphics capability. It can convey both textual and graphic data in the same character stream. For a more detailed discussion of the design decisions that lead to the current Display Protocol see PP-79-1, "A Network Compatible Display Protocol", by B. Schweeger.

Other design goals include having a clean user input side interface, meshing with UNIX design philosophy, containing ASCII as a subset, and being compact for efficient transmission over networks.

This document describes the Display Protocol as it stands, not as it might be, and so may be out of date on some subjects. However, most revisions of the protocol are expected to be backward compatible. While this document may not represent what is latest with the Display Protocol, it should serve the applications writer adequately.

Actions (login required)

View Item