COMPUTER GRAPHICS PRIMER
This book shows you how to create your own video graphics on the new personal computers being sold across the country. It is oriented toward the Radio Shack TRS-80, the Commodore PET 2001, and the Apple II home computers, and it is geared to the user who wants to know the concepts and techniques for drawing pictures, making graphs and charts, animating shapes and objects, creating mandalas and dazzlers, and just about any application of the visual arts that you can imagine.
The Apple II computer is used for the programming examples in this book. Video graphics on it is accomplished with simple instructions that are part of the BASIC language. Statements are used to control certain graphics commends, such as PLOT X Y or COLOR = or HLIN. Because the graphics commands are simple no prior programming experience is needed to use them. The book follows a simple format that introduces the major graphics instructions available on the computer, and then shows how they work and what they can be used for in a program. Numerous photographs are provided to help you visualize how the instruction operates.
The sections in the book include: what a graphics computer is; scanning; character generator ROM; color graphics; display density; language statements; product profiles; digitizing tables; drawing simple pictures; backgrounds; animation, mandalas, and other computer art; and Pong games. A directory of manufacturers and a comparison of computer screen densities have been included as appendixes. Like the other books in the Sams “Primer” series this one reduces hard-to-find technical information to a simple and easy-to-understand form.
Mitchell Waite is an experienced author with a wide background in electronics, computers, and nonordinary technology. He has published articles on such diverse subjects as biofeedback, parapsychology, music synthesis, and video games; and he is a coauthor of Microcomputer Primer, BASIC Primer, and Your Own Computer. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society. When not writing books Mr. Waite teaches kids about computers at the Marin Computer Center in Terra Linda, California. His other interests include hiking and poetry.
Howard W. Sams & Co. Inc.
4300 WEST 62ND ST. INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 48298 USA
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