CalComp & Lahey Graphics Interface Emulations

Winteracter includes software which emulates various CalComp compatible graphics interfaces, allowing legacy graphics code to be ported to Microsoft Windows or X Windows. The emulation software is supplied in both pre-compiled and source code form. WiDE includes options which allow projects to link the pre-compiled versions automatically. Alternatively, the supplied source code allows the emulation to be modified to meet individual developer's requirements. The three emulated interfaces are:

CalComp HCBS (Host Computer Basic Software)

Many Fortran programs written during the 1970's and 1980's used the HCBS interface which was designed for use with CalComp plotters and was subsequently reimplemented for various other device types. Winteracter's "CalComp" interface emulates all 10 of the HCBS routines as defined in "Programming CalComp Electromechanical Plotters" (copyright California Computer Products Inc. 1977). The emulated HCBS routines are :

Lahey Video Graphics Library

The popular Lahey F77L and F77L-EM/32 DOS Fortran 77 compilers included a partial HCBS emulation library which also added various basic PC-related extensions. This library was briefly shipped with Lahey LF90 1.xx before being replaced by the Lahey INTERACTER Starter Kit (LISK) and later the Winteracter Starter Kit (WiSK). Winteracter's "CalComp" interface provides a full emulation of the Lahey Video Graphics Library (LVGL) as defined by Lahey in the "Lahey F77L-EM/32 FORTRAN Programmer's Reference manual Revision C January 1992" (copyright Lahey Computer Systems 1992). The emulated LVGL routines are :

Graphoria

Graphoria was an add-on product sold by Lahey, which provided a superset of the facilities provided by the Lahey Video Graphics Library. Graphoria completed the HCBS emulation and added a large number of "CalComp-like" extensions. It also added hardcopy to the LVGL, which was a screen-only library. Lahey discontinued Graphoria in 1995.

Emulations of the majority of the most commonly used Graphoria routines are included with Winteracter, allowing many Graphoria based programs to be rebuilt. The emulated Graphoria routines conform to the specification defined by Lahey in the "Graphoria Library Reference Manual Revision C May 1991" (copyright Lahey Computer Systems 1991). The emulated Graphoria routines are :

Demos

A small number of demonstration programs are supplied to illustrate how legacy code written to one of the above interfaces can be resurrected with the supplied emuations. All of the demos are derived from example programs, contemporary with the original interfaces.

Documentation

The function and arguments of the emulated routines are specifically not documented. The emulated interfaces are provided to allow legacy code to be rebuilt and/or ported, but are not intended to be used to develop new graphics code. For original documentation, refer to these PDF files:

• Calcomp HCBS manual
• Lahey Graphoria manual (Since Graphoria was a complete superset of the Lahey Video Graphics Library, this also serves as documentation for the LVGL)

Example Images

The images below were generated using original example programs for the HCBS, Lahey Video Graphics and Graphoria interfaces: