"SGP": a simple graphics package

Abstract

This paper presents a simple scheme for manipulating graphical information. The basic idea is to generate a user-readable, and therefore editable, file of device-independent picture descriptions. This file would typically be created by a set of FORTRAN-callable subroutines, each having a specific function (draw a vector, draw an axis, write text), but could be created in more direct ways by a user sufficiently familiar with the file structure. Once such a file has been created and perhaps examined and edited, a postprocessor may be selected to translate the file into the device-dependent instructions necessary to produce a picture on a specific device. If the file is saved, a different postprocessor could obviously be used later to generate the same picture on another device.