Object-oriented systems have gained a great deal of popularity recently and their application to graphics has been very successful. This book documents a number of recent advances and indicates numerous areas of current research. The purpose of the book is: - to demonstrate the extraordinary practical utility of object-oriented methods in computer graphics (including user interfaces, image synthesis, CAD), - to examine outstanding research issues in the field of object-oriented graphics, and in particular to investi- gate extensions and shortcomings of the methodology when applied to computer graphics. Papers included in the book extend existing object-oriented graphical techniques, such as Smalltalk's "model view controller" or "constraints," introduce the use of complex and persistent objects in graphics, and give approaches to direct manipulation interfaces. The reader is presented with an in-depth treatment of a number of significant existing graphics systems, both for user interfaces and for image synthesis. There are theoretical surveys and chapters pointing to new directions in the broad field of computer graphics. Computer language scientists will find a useful critique of object-oriented language constructs and suggested ways to extend object-oriented theory.

Object-oriented concepts are particularly applicable to computer graphics in its broadest sense, including interaction, image synthesis, animation, and computer-aided design. The use of object-oriented techniques in computer graphics is a widely acknowledged way of dealing with the complexities encountered in graphics systems. But the field of object-oriented graphics (OOG) is still young and full of problems. This book reports on latest advances in this field and discusses how the discipline of OOG is being explored and developed. The topics covered include object-oriented constraint programming, object-oriented modeling of graphics applications to handle complexity, object-oriented techniques for developing user interfaces, and 3D modeling and rendering.

The papers in this volume are a good sampling and overview of current solutions to the problems of creating graphically based systems. This breadth of scope comes out of the closing discussion at the Fourth Eurographics Workshop on Object-Oriented Graphics. The fifth workshop, on Programming Paradigms in Graphics, set out to provide answers and alternatives to the shortcomings of object-oriented graphics. The presentations investigated the applicability, merits and problems of various programming paradigms in computer graphics for design, modelling and implementation. This book contains a revised selection of the best papers from the Fifth Eurograph ics Workshop on Programming Paradigms in Graphics, held 2-3 September 1995 in Maastricht, The etherlands. All papers at the workshop were subjected to a thorough review by at least three members of the international programme committee. The se lection for this book was based on further review and the papers also incorporate the relevant aspects of the discussions at the workshop. In past Eurographics workshops on Object-Oriented Graphics the prominent trend has been a discovery of the limits of object-orientation in graphics. The limitations of object-orientation were felt to lie in such areas as the expression of relationships between objects. This is an area of particular strength for the declarative languages, such as constraint-based languages. On the other hand, a notion of state has long been a problem in declarative languages and yet it is often seen as an essential aspect of graphical modelling, particularly in simulation and animation."