Title:
GeoSheet: A Distributed Visualization Tool for Geometric Algorithms
D. T. Lee*
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60208
* Supported by the Office of Naval Research under the Grant
No. N00014-93-1-0272
Chin-Fang Shen
Avant! Corporation
46871 Bayside Parkway
Fremont, CA 94538
e-mail: cfshen@avanticorp.com
and
Shih-Min Sheu
ZEXEL Innovation
1249 Innsbruck Dr.
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
e-mail: dennis@zexel.com
Abstract:
GeoSheet (version 1.0) is an interactive visualization tool for visualizing
geometric algorithms in distributed environments. It provides features such as
interactive visualization of program states for debugging, high-level
graphical input/output manipulation facilities for geometric objects,
reuse of existing data structures and algorithms implementation, and
more importantly distributed executions on heterogeneous machines at
different sites. To minimize development effort of the tool we make use of
existing software packages available in public domain. Specifically we extend Xfig
with a message-driven interface and a socket-based interprocess communication (IPC)
mechanism. This extended-Xfig is the backbone of this version of the tool.
Object-oriented programming methodology is used to construct the visualization
interface. By deriving from traditional data type and algorithm libraries, our abstract
GeoObject representation super-classes are easy to use, easy to construct,
and highly portable. Although GeoSheet is not restricted to a particular
application domain or any programming language, this release only contains
geometric algorithm implementations in C++ and LEDA. We hope that the geometric
algorithm designers will find it useful when they develop their algorithms.
Keywords: Visualization, geometric computing, objected-oriented programming,
X windows, distributed environment.
Int'l J. Comput. Geometry & Applications, (8,2) April 1998, 119-155.