🚀 go-pugleaf

<U54876@uicvm.uic.edu> writes
> Hello -
> 
>   To all you experienced NeXT programmers out there, a very basic question
> about RenderMan from someone who has just started programming.
>   I have copied, verbatim, the "minimal program using RenderMan" from page 18
> of The RenderMan Companion, saved it as test.c, and tried to compile it  
using:
> cc -lMedia_s test.c -o test
> 
> I get:
> 
> /bin/ld: Undefined symbols:
> _RiBegin
> _RiWorldBegin
> _RiSurface
> _RI_P
> _RiPolygon
> _RiWorldEnd
> _RiEnd
> 
...

You can't get there from here.

To compile the programs in the Companion you would need to be able to either  
directly link in the renderer, or link in the RIB client library routines that  
emit the RIB eaten by the renderer (which in this case is the renderer in  
/usr/prman/prman).  But neither of these avenues are possible with what's  
shipped by NeXT; you have to order a separate product from Pixar.  At the  
bottom of Intro3DKit.rtf (search in Librarian with General Reference selected)  
you will find the following enlightenment:

I3DK> Other components of the RenderMan Toolkit aren't
I3DK> included in NeXTSTEP Release 3 the tutorials, a
I3DK> linkable renderer, a RIB library, and so forth.  To get
I3DK> these, you must purchase the RenderMan Toolkit from
I3DK> Pixar.  If you've written programs using the RenderMan
I3DK> Toolkit, they will not work in NeXTSTEP 3.0 directly;
I3DK> you'll need to rewrite them to make use of the 3D Kit.

Note that even if you had, for example, librib.a, once you moved on to the more  
ambitious examples in the book you would find there was a lot of missing  
"scaffolding" code that you would need to make the programs work - routines to  
position the camera for the scene, and so on.  The Developer's Toolkit comes  
with all this stuff, plus a bunch of doc - a second copy of the companion, a  
copy of the Interface spec, notes on all the RiOption calls that make sense for  
prman, and a set of "PhotoRealistic RenderMan Application Notes".  Application  
note #15, on making shadows, is 15 pages long!

Pixar's telephone number is (510) 236-4000; their fax is (510) 236-0388.

-- joseph