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PEXlib Programming Manual by Tom Gaskins Recommended

ISBN: 0-56592-028-7       Publisher: O'Reilly       Pages: 1105pp       Price: £33-95

PEXlib Reference Manual by Various Recommended

ISBN: 0-56592-029-5       Publisher: O'Reilly       Pages: 551pp       Price: £25-95

Categories:   graphics     X Windows

Reviewed by Francis Glassborow in C Vu 5-5 (Jul 1993)

It is hardly surprising that it was the Unix world that first developed a protocol to allow graphical support for remote processes. This is via the X protocol (often called X windows). In fact the protocol is platform independent and is now available on PCs via various commercial products (such as DESQViewX). As Unix occurs in many flavours good consistent protocols to support portable programming are vital.

PEX stands for Phigs Extensions to X. This is not the place to go into Phigs (though C Vu would be delighted to publish an article on it if anyone wants to write it) except to state that it is a standard set of graphics functions.

The purpose of PEXlib is to provide a standard library of over 200 functions to support 3D graphics programming in an X environment. Like many areas developed for Unix there are both PD implementations and extremely expensive commercial versions (for most platforms).

The purpose of these two books is to provide portable documentation for PEXlib. If you are preparing to develop programs for X then you should learn about PEX even if you eventually decide to use some other graphics library. If you are one of that growing band of enthusiasts who are exploring Unix via one of the excellent PD versions that are now available then PEX should be on your list of topics to study.

It is worth remembering that PD unixes allow you to install a full unix with X, C and C++ compiler and a full range of unix tools for about £50. If you want to get the best value from your investment you will need to follow up with good reading matter from well informed sources. Almost without exception you will find what you need somewhere in O'Reilly & Associates list of titles.

If you are in the target readership your money will be well spent. If you are not then neither book will have anything to offer you.