PHIGS Standard

All PVT documentation can be found under PHIGS Validation Tests - Overview.

PHIGS stands for Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System. The PHIGS standard defines a set of functions and data structures to be used by a programmer to manipulate and display 3-D graphical objects. For a full description of the features of PHIGS, see [PHIGS89]. The standard has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as ANSI X3.144-1988, by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) as ISO 9592-1:1989, and by the Federal government as Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 153.

Because of legal restrictions, the actual text of the standard is not currently available online. This document merely serves to describe the logical structure of the standard and its relationship to other parts of the PVT.

The sections of the standard that are covered by the semantic requirements (SRs) of the PVT are followed by references to those SRs. It may be useful to display the Hierarchical table of topics covered by the PVT in a separate window, so as to interpret the module identifiers associated with the SRs. For instance, a reference to "04.02.05.02/SR09" means that SR09 in the "Interior bundles" module describes some aspect of the standard under which that reference is listed.

PHIGS Standard

0 : Introduction

1 : Scope and field of application

2 : References

3 : Definitions

4 : The Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System

4.1 : Standardization

4.1.1 : Specification and conformance

4.1.2 : Registration

4.2 : Overview

4.3 : Concepts

4.3.1 : PHIGS concepts

4.3.2 : Relationship to ISO 7942 (GKS) and ISO 8805 (GKS-3D)

4.3.3 : Notational conventions

4.4 : The centralized structure store

4.4.1 : Structure elements and structures

4.4.2 : Structure networks

4.4.3 : Structure traversal and display

4.4.4 : Structure editing

4.4.5 : Manipulation of structures in CSS

4.4.6 : CSS search and inquiry

4.4.7 : Structure archival and retrieval

4.4.8 : Generalized Structure Elements (GSE)

4.4.9 : Application data

4.5 : Graphical output

4.5.1 : Structure elements and output primitives

4.5.2 : Output primitive attributes

4.5.5 : Text attributes

4.5.8 : Fill area attributes

4.5.9 : Fill area set attributes

4.5.10 : Cell array attributes

4.5.11 : Generalized drawing primitive attributes

4.5.12 : Colour

4.5.13 : View index

4.5.14 : Hidden line / hidden surface removal (HLHSR) identifier

4.5.15 : Name set attribute

4.5.16 : Minimal simulations

4.5.17 : Degenerate primitives

4.6 : Workstations

4.6.1 : Workstation characteristics

4.6.2 : Workstation selection

4.6.3 : Controlling picture changes

4.6.4 : Clearing the display surface

4.6.5 : Sending messages to a workstation

4.6.6 : Hidden line / hidden surface removal

4.7 : Coordinate systems and transformations

4.7.1 : Coordinate system handedness

4.7.2 : Modelling transformations and clipping

4.7.3 : Modelling utility functions

4.7.4 : Viewing

4.7.5 : Viewing utility functions

4.7.6 : Workstation transformation

4.7.7 : Transformation of locator input

4.7.8 : Transformation of stroke input

4.8 : Graphical input

4.8.1 : Introduction to logical input devices

4.8.2 : Logical input device model

4.8.3 : Operating modes of logical input devices

4.8.4 : Measures of each input class

4.8.5 : Input queue and current event report

4.8.6 : Initialization of input devices

4.8.7 : Locator and stroke input using 2D input

4.9 : PHIGS metafile interface

4.10 : PHIGS states

4.11 : Inquiry functions

4.12 : Error handling

4.13 : Special interfaces between PHIGS and application program

4.14 : Minimum support criteria

5 : PHIGS functional specification

5.1 : Notational conventions

5.2 : Control functions

5.3 : Output primitive functions

5.4 : Attribute specification functions

5.4.1 : Bundled attribute selection

5.4.2 : Individual attribute selection

5.4.3 : Aspect source flag setting

5.4.4 : Workstation attribute table definition

5.4.5 : Workstation filter definition

5.4.6 : Colour model control

5.4.7 : HLHSR attributes