Graphics Vision
3.0 for DOS/DPMI/Windows
Graphics Vision for the Free Pascal Compiler (DOS/Linux)
"Wenn Sie lieber die deutsche Version lesen wollen, klicken Sie hier: German-language Version"
Graphics Vision
3.0 for DOS/DPMI/Windows
Graphics Vision for the Free Pascal Compiler (DOS/Linux)
Graphics Vision 3.0 for DOS/DPMI/WindowsGraphics Vision is now available for Windows. With Gv/Win, you can easily port your Turbo Vision and Graphics Vision applications to Windows. Generate code for three platforms -- DOS, DPMI, and Windows -- from one source code.
Supported compilers: Borland Pascal 7.0 for Windows; Delphi 1.0
Since February 1999, Graphics Vision
is free for individual use but still available for commercial
licensing. The DOS graphics libraries (MyMouse, TrueType, ...) are now
free software, covered by the GNU Library General Public
License.
The current version of Graphics Vision & Tools (including all sources and all of the existing documentation [mostly in German]) is available here (date: 09-Feb-1999). You can also access it via CVS.
Graphics
Vision is going to become a LGPL'ed SourceForge project.
Graphics Vision for the Free Pascal CompilerGraphics Vision is currently being ported to the Free Pascal Compiler. This compilers generates powerful 32-bit applications. Targets are DOS (with GO32 DOS extender) and Linux-based GNU systems, whose importance is rapidly increasing. Support for Windows NT is planned.
GV/FPC will be freely available both for DOS and Linux. Watch the current state of development here.
Graphics Vision is an object-oriented class library, which provides an SAA graphical user interface with MS Windows look but is fully compatible with Borland's text mode library Turbo Vision 2.0. That means, existing Turbo Vision programs can be made run in graphics with little changes. Thus, Graphics Vision is not only the graphic enhancement for your Turbo Vision programs but also a real alternative to Windows programming and the OW Library.
Graphics Vision is not a simple text-in-graphics emulation of Turbo Vision, but an object hierarchy, which bases on Turbo Vision's objects and provides a new, full-graphic object hierarchy, whose functionality enhances and outperforms Turbo Vision's capabilities. Graphics Vision supports a step-wise conversion of existing Turbo Vision applications into powerful graphical applications by providing a highly efficient Turbo Vision emulation. That is, even objects from compiled Turbo Vision units can be integrated into your Graphics Vision application.
Graphics Vision's decisive feature is its clever visibility management. You need not care about partially hidden views or windows, just draw into them, and Graphics Vision will do the rest. Of course, frame buffering and metafiling are used to speed up drawing. Graphics Vision even supports transparent views! This enables using non-rectangularly shaped views.
Graphics Vision is extremely fast through highly-optimized graphical routines and good algorithms. Instead of using the BGI, Graphics Vision comes with its own graphic libraries. MetaGraph is a module especially designed for use in a graphical user interface. VgaMem and other units provide efficient BitBlt'ing (i.e. video copying methods). MyMouse does the advanced mouse control, such as providing large-scale mouse cursors.
Graphics Vision breaks the limits of common DOS-applications' font support. Where you need fast bitmapped fonts, MyFonts gives you access to Windows fonts, but also supports VGA fonts. Where scalable fonts are needed, TrueType and vector (both Windows and BGI) fonts are supported.
Graphics Vision supports the Turbo Vision-style resource files, of course. Moreover, Windows resources can be integrate into your projects. Just design your dialogs, menus, accelerators, and bitmaps in the Resource Workshop. Even BWCC-style dialog controls (bitmapped buttons and 3-D look) are provided. Graphics Vision's standard identifiers and menus are included as RC files.
Graphics Vision applications can easily be translated into other languages. The standard texts are loaded from a language resource, which is available both in English and German by default. Using the Language Compiler, you can add scripts to this resource, for your own modules and any language you like to support.
Graphics Vision comes with an extensive online documentation. The registered/licensed version includes even a hypertext version, which can be integrated into the Borland Pascal IDE. Lots of example applications show how to use the features of Graphics Vision.
Here are some more features in keywords:
Load Graphics Vision 2.10 Evaluation version from local host
Graphics Vision is an object-oriented class library for Turbo/Borland Pascal, which lets you create DOS-based graphical user interfaces with a MS Windows 3.1 look. That seems to be nothing special. But Graphics Vision is fully compatible with Turbo Vision. That is, all of your Turbo Vision applications will, modified slightly, run as Graphics Vision applications.
This feature makes Graphics Visionnot only a graphical enhancement for your Turbo Vision applications, but also a real alternative to Windoze programming with OWL or any other package.
Graphics Vision is none of these text-in-graphics emulations for Turbo Vision. Rather, it is a completely newly developed library, providing a compatible object hierarchy with real graphics.
Graphics Vision is very fast, using highly-optimized graphical primitives and draw algorithms.
Here are some of its features:
Load Graphics Vision 2.01 Shareware version from local host
Load Graphics Vision 2.01 Shareware version from SimTel FTP
This Turbo/Borland Pascal programming package provides TrueType font access for your DOS applications. The fonts may be scaled to almost arbitrary sizes, without any loss of quality. Additionally, linear transformations like shearing and rotating are efficiently supported.
Other font types supported are:
Load TrueType Fonts for DOS Shareware version from local host
Load TrueType Fonts for DOS Shareware version from SimTel FTP
This programming package allows you loading device-independent BMP files in the format of Windows or OS/2. The bitmaps are converted into images, i.e. device-compatible bitmaps, which can be output using PutImage.
Supported are monochrome, 16-color, and 256-color bitmaps, which are either converted into 16-color or 256-color images, depending on the current graphics mode. Respect to the bitmap's color palette is given by a nearest-color algorithm.
Load Windows Bitmaps for DOS Shareware version from local host
Load Windows Bitmaps for DOS Shareware version from Garbo FTP
The registered version is available at DM 20 (about USD 15). Registered and licensed versions include all sources plus an efficient replacement for Graph's image functions, supporting huge (> 64K) images, correct clipping, high performance, and lots of other features.
A package of optimized VGA/SVGA graphic routines, replacing Borland's Graph unit. MetaGraph's special feature is recording sequences of graphic operations (metafiling), which can be played arbitrarily often in a very fast fashion.
Load MetaGraph Shareware version from local host
This programming package consists of the following major units:
Using Windows' clipboard functions from within your DOS or DPMI programs. If your application is running in a DOS box, Windows' clipboard is directly accessed. Otherwise, the functions are consistently emulated.
This gives your applications DDE, without binding them to Windows.
Load Windows Clipboard for DOS Shareware from local host
A three-dimensional animated view to arbitrary user-defined chemical molecules. With Multiple Document Interface. Even on slow PCs very fast animations by integer calculations and optimized graphic routines.
Load Chemical Molecules demo from local host