🚀 go-pugleaf

In digest 308 <BRUINSMA%HUTRUU51.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> says:
>I have some problems with the GEM format of the picture files
>which are made by the excellent program UNITERM. The idea is
>to make the picture as good as possible on a mainframe computer
>and then edit it further on the atari. I would like to use the
>latest version of EASY-DRAW for this purpose.
I had exactly the same problem a couple of months ago and asked a similar
question here...no luck.  But it turns out that on Compuserve there is
a useful discussion of the Easy-Draw metafile format (called EZDRAW.ARC
I think) that sheds some light on it.  I was then able to produce a very
crude C program on the ST to convert Uniterm .GEM files to Easy-Draw
format...I need to go back and overhaul it.  I also wrote a VAX/VMS Fortran
program to convert the NCAR metafile format (not the GKS version) to
Easy-Draw form.  The Fortran program is in fairly respectable shape so
anyone who wants it can have it.
The restrictions in the Easy-Draw format are:
1) It wants page size and coordinate information in the header, which
   Uniterm doesn't supply.
2) It wants some option information stored with the "write metafile"
   function which of course other applications don't supply.
3) It uses "write metafile" ops to define the beginning and end of each
   object (eg, vector or polyline).
4) Its coordinates are x in [-3200,3200] and y in [-4000,4000], while
   Uniterm uses the [0,32767] range for both.
5) Polylines are limited to 127 points (GEM limit - nastily enforced with
   crashes).  Uniterm seems to break polylines into simple vectors, so
   some logic is needed to rebuild polylines without exceeding the
   127 vertex limit.
6) Polylines also need the fill function set to transparent.
7) Easy-Draw wants an EOF (0xFFFF) while Uniterm ends with an "update
   workstation" call.
I've been doing simple data plots with NCAR on Vax and then adding all
the annotation, shading, and whatever else it takes with Easy-Draw.  Then
print the results on an HP LaserJet.  All the figures in my thesis and
(soon to be) published papers are done this way.  With text by Publishing
Partner on an Apple LaserWriter.
[PS: I finally saw a practical use for an Amiga.  Run a heavy-metal soundtrack
in one window and garish graphics in a large window.  Put under visqueen
and place in middle of garden.  It keeps birds, rabbits, moose, and just
about everything else out.  However a ghetto blaster with autoreverse is
a much more cost-effective implementation of this concept!]
Don Rice
FXDDR@ALASKA.BITNET