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From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-06-24 12:46:54


"Andy Little" <andy_at_[hidden]> writes:

> A graph OTOH is a mathematical abstraction far removed from any
> phemomenon it is trying to represent.

I could argue that point effectively, but I don't need to.

> A pointer is similarly an abstraction far removed from the
> electronic phemonena

Really? I thought memory addressing goes down to a pretty fundamental
level in most computers. Well, nevermind that...

> Both Graphs and pointers are also widely computing entities with
> very widespread general purpose use.

Yes. Images aren't widely used for many different purposes?

> Neither Graphs or pointers need a viewer for a user to make sense of them

Against both of those assertions there are good arguments. For pointers
consider the popularity of http://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/. For
graphs... well, have you ever tried to understand a graph that's given
some non-graphical presentation? It's possible for small graphs, but
http://www.tomsawyer.com/home/index.php has a market with good reason.

> Imaging OTOH is a specialised area. Fact is you need a Viewer of some kind to
> work with them in any meaningful way.

And there are hundreds of image viewers available, many of them free.
There's no reason Boost has to provide one. And a viewer is a far cry
from being a UI for the library. The library does image
_manipulation_.

> I am being slightly cheeky and trying to probe as to whether the
> Adobe guys would also be willing to share some of their cross
> platform viewing technology with boost as a companion to or part of
> their GIL proposal.

So OTOH you were not making a serious objection to the library
proposal?

> Imagine how impressive the GIL examples would be if the library came
> with a viewer.

I don't see how it would make the examples any more impressive. The
library docs would surely have lots of pictures.

> Heck you could even use it for BGL and little memory boxes
> representing pointers if you felt the need.

Now I'm totally lost.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com

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