Developer Toolbox v5.1, December, 1995
Hot Stuff Listing of Contents

HUB | Pheedbak | Tree | Topic | A-Z | Search | Hot | New

• pstools, A Collection of PostScript Processing Tools for the IRIS, provides 25 programs (16 new, 3 significantly updated) combining operations with/on PostScript files with IRIS GL.
• imgscr, 26 new scripts combining the power of different programs in imgtools & pstools to perform extended image processing operations.
• imgtools, Image Processing Tools for the IRIS, now contains 218 programs (85 new, 27 sig. upd.) including 31 (12 new, 6 sig. upd) convert from and 26 (9 new, 1 sig. upd) convert to SGI imagelib image file format programs.
• A toolbox-version of Paul's GRAPHICA Obscura, Collected Computer Graphics Hacks, includes extending his Image Production for the Web document with links into the haeberli subtree of all source code the programs described are generated from.
• fonttools, contains 27 programs (6 new, 4 sig. upd.) combining operations with/on polygonal outline font format files and IRIS GL, and tons of font files in fonts/

Digital Media:

• 1995 inst images of SGI's Speech Recognition Project.
• 1995 version 1.1 of the SGI DIGITAL VIDEO Specificiation, includes a description of the Indy Video (34 pin) Digital Video connector.
• cineswipe, allows you to record your GL or OpenGL based application's graphics into a digital movie file (SGI, QuickTime, JPEG) without touching the application itself. This functionality is exemplified by a technique for substituting DSO functions in any DSO-based application.
• contcapt, a converted OpenGL version of the VL contcapt program.

Documentation:

• RFC is again up-to-date -- most recent rfc == rfc1870 -- and now possesses VERY BOSS interface thanx to Robert Keller.
• Installing and Running IRIX on a Drive Other Than Drive 1, describes two techniques: installing IRIX on a disk drive other than the one configured as SCSI device 1, and booting from a disk drive other than the system disk. In addition, this article documents related features of the PROM monitor, sash, and the miniroot.

DSOs:

• DSOsecurity - DSO Function Authentication.
  An example of how to protect DSO function calls from being intercepted or replaced. An application or licensing code developer can use DSOauth in their application such that they can protect their DSO function calls from being intercepted or replaced (eg. preventing substitution of the gettimeofday call in a license verification routine) without giving up any of the features of DSOs.

Hardware:

• Software Solutions to EISA Hang Problems. If your EISA board driver causes your system to hang unexpectedly, you could try to solve the problem by using one of several hardware debugging options. The solution, however, might be software-related. This article describes how to correct EISA hang problems by
  • Preempting EISA boards
  • Disabling EISA Refresh Memory Cycle
• A sample SCSI kernel-level DAT driver controls a DAT tape drive and demonstrates how to communicate with SGI's SCSI controller driver and issue commands to a target drive and receive data from it.

OpenGL:

• IRIX 5.3-based SGI class source for
  • OpenGL 1 -- the basics,
  • OpenGL 2 -- advanced issues.
• OpenGL documentation and sample code for IRIX 5.3 extensions + patch154.
• contcapt, a converted OpenGL version of the VL contcapt program.

Open Inventor:

• The Open Inventor Course's class source helps applications programmers master a sophisticated library of object-oriented 3-D building blocks designed to take advantage of Silicon Graphics hardware features with minimal programming effort. Students learn to write graphics applications using a library of objects that can be reused, customized, and extended to meet new needs.

Texture Mapping:

• Interactive Volume Rendering Using Advanced Graphics Architectures, describes a good alternative use of texture mapping.

Utilities:

• IRIS InSight Professional Publisher Product Evaluation Software -- the IRIX 5.3 extension to 5.2's sgihelp_dev is here. This software enables technical writers to create InSight books, SGI help cards, and hardcopy manuals, all from a single FrameMaker source document.
• efscopy, a powerful tool to VERY quickly clone an entire disk's contents. efscopy provides FAST disk-cloning--faster than partition-to-partition copy of sash cp (see Advanced Site and Server Guide); restore an efscopy'ed image file onto multiple target devices simultaneously, e.g. sash cp can't do what efscopy file target1 target2 ... can do.
• Preparing to Upgrade to IRIX 6.2 accompanying the coffcheck script, provides the method to identify COFF (IRIX 4) binaries and replace them with the ELF binaries that IRIX 5 and later releases employ.