g2 - graphic library (C) 1999 Lj. Milanovic, H. Wagner

Version 0.xx

License Information
===================

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
Lesser General Public License for more details.

See INSTALL for information on how to install g2 see the html
documentation in the doc/ subdirectory for a function reference

What is g2 ? 
============

Short version (if you are in hurry): 

     2D graphic library 
     Simple to use 
     Supports several types of output devices (currently X11, GIF, PostScript) 
     Concept allows easy implementation of new device types 
     Virtual devices allow to send output simultaneously to several devices 
     User definable coordinate system 
     Written in ANSI-C 
     Tested under Digital Unix, AIX, Linux, VMS and Windows NT 
     Fortran interface 

Long version: 

g2 is a simple to use graphics library for 2D graphical applications
written in Ansi-C. This library provides a comprehensive set of
functions for simultaneous generation of graphical output on different
types of devices. Presently, following devices are currently supported
by g2: X11, GIF, PostScript (xfig and Win32 are in developement).  One
major feature of the g2_library is the concept of virtual devices. An
arbitrary number of physical devices (such as GIF, or X11) can be
grouped to create a so-called virtual device. Commands sent to such a
virtual devices will automatically issued to all attached physical
devices. This allows for example simultaneous output to a GIF file and
a Postscript file. A virtual device in turn can be attached to another
virtual device, allowing to construct trees of devices.  Virtual
devices can also be useful when using different user-coordinate
systems. E.g. one X11 window showing an overview of a graphical
output, and a second window showing a zoom of a more detailed area of
the graphic. Drawing in both windows is performed by one single
command to the virtual device.

                                                                          
                                   /-------> GIF:   g2_attach(id_GIF,... 
            ----------------------- 
g2_plot---> | Virtual device: id |--------> X11:   g2_attach(id_X11,...
            -----------------------
                                   \-------> PS:    g2_attach(id_PS,...

If you don't need or like the concept of virtual devices, simply ignore it. 


CONTACT
=======

You can contact the authors and contributors by e-mail:

Ljubomir Milanovic 			ljubo@users.sourceforge.net
Horst Wagner       			wagner@users.sourceforge.net
Tijs Michels (spline implementation)	tijs@vimec.nl

or visit g2 home page on:

http://g2.sourceforge.net/


