Abbreviation | GKS |
---|---|
Year started | 1977 |
Latest version | ISO/IEC 7942-4:1998 1998 |
Organization | ANSI, ISO, IEC |
Related standards | ANSI X3.124, ISO 8651, ISO 8805, ISO/IEC 8806, ISO 10303 |
Domain | Computer graphics |
The Graphical Kernel System (GKS) was the first ISO standard for low-level computer graphics, introduced in 1977. A draft international standard was circulated for review in September 1983. [1] [2] [3] Final ratification of the standard was achieved in 1985. [4] [5]
GKS provides a set of drawing features for two-dimensional vector graphics suitable for charting and similar duties. The calls are designed to be portable across different programming languages, graphics devices and hardware, so that applications written to use GKS will be readily portable to many platforms and devices.
GKS was fairly common on computer workstations in the 1980s and early 1990s. [6] GKS formed the basis of Digital Research's GSX which evolved into VDI, one of the core components of GEM. GEM was the native GUI on the Atari ST and was occasionally seen on PCs, particularly in conjunction with Ventura Publisher. GKS was little used commercially outside these markets, but remains in use in some scientific visualization packages. It is also the underlying API defining the Computer Graphics Metafile. A descendant of GKS was PHIGS. One popular application based on an implementation of GKS is the GR Framework, [7] a C library for high-performance scientific visualization that has become a common plotting backend among Julia users.
A main developer and promoter of the GKS was José Luis Encarnação, formerly director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD) in Darmstadt, Germany.
GKS has been standardized in the following documents: [8] [9]
The functionality of GKS is wrapped up as a data model standard in the STEP standard, section ISO 10303-46.
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José Luis Moreira da Encarnação is a Portuguese computer scientist, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Computer Science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany and a senior technology and innovation advisor to governments, multinational companies, research institutions and organizations, and foundations. He is involved in the development of research agendas and innovation strategies for socio-economic development with a focus on emerging economies. He is also a member of the Topical Network Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and ICT-related activities of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) and the German Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW). He is an elected member of the ACM SIGGRAPH Academy (USA).
The Department of Computer Science is a department of the Technische Universität Darmstadt. With a total of 36 professorships and about 3,700 students in 12 study courses, the Department of Computer Science is the largest department of the university. The department shapes the two research profile areas "Cybersecurity (CYSEC)" and "Internet and Digitization (InDi)" of the university.