Weeks 8 Fall 2011 
10oct11



\begin{document}
\maketitle

\section{Monday}
\section{The Bresenham Algorithm}
This lesson is about how computers draw straight lines and 
how OpenGL colors a triangle. Emily Gunawan's lecture, based
on Jim Blinn's article, is a solution to the assignment, to 
deconstruct the algorithm 
from her code. Read it after you've
made an attempt at least. Once you've understood her explanation,
see if you can solve the easier problem, of drawing a straight 
line on your own, without googling it. 

The example is in Python with TKinter. As of 15aug13, it is still possible to
see this program do its thing by (1) copying the code to a file on your computer
called gunawan.py, for example. 
Then (2), feed this file to your resident Python installed on your computer. 
For example, on a Mac or Linux, enter the command "python gunawan.py" on a command line.

It is also good exercise to implement
this example in other languages you are good at, e.g.
\begin{itemize}
\item Python/OpenGL
\item C/C++/Open GL (as in mvc98)
\item VPython 
\end{itemize}
In each case, there is a preliminary problem to solve, namely how to 
draw a visible square to represent one pixel, since our pixels are not
too small to see. 
Once you have a familar drawing program working on the code, you can 
experiment with it to also draw the Bresenham line. What other figures
can you draw by a similar method? 

\section{New Resources}
For those of you learning OpenGL, the sample basket from the Redbook 
is a great resource. Those with PC should see if the .exe from 1996 
here will still run. Those of you who an use a C/OpenGL compiler 
(you need glut.h), for example mvc98, should figure out the minimum 
modifications (described in the onboard readme-file, on the codes to 
recompile. Use the pocket programs as guides. 

\begin{itemize} 
\item A didactic (and incidentally, very amusing) essay you 
will enjoy reading is 

In the Beginning ... was the Commandline by Neal Stephenson, 
the author of Snowcrash.
\item The redbookOGL directory contains ancient
OpenGL examples from the famous  Redbook 
\end{itemize}
\section{Tuesday}
\begin{itemize} 
\item We finally have a sensible and simple GUI wordprocessor for macs,
  Bean  by John Hoover, 
a writer.  It is similar to 
Wordpad. and better yet,  it still works on OSX10.7 "Lion".
\end{itemize}
\section{Wednesday}
\begin{itemize} 
\item Zach Reizner: Mandelbrot meets Julia on the GPU
\end{itemize}
\section{Thursday}
\begin{itemize} 
\item Se-Joon Chung: Dancing i in the Cube (testing)
\item Matt Hoffman: Sierpinski tetrahedra in the Cube (testing) 
\end{itemize}
\section{Friday}
\begin{itemize} \end{itemize}


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