I'm happy to announce that Frink can now draw graphics! This is
probably the largest single update of Frink ever, and it adds the
ability to easily draw high-quality, resizable graphics, print them, or
save them to files. Here are some of the features:

* Flexible coordinate system: You can draw your graphics to any
coordinates you wish, and Frink will, by default, automatically scale
and center them in your display device, eliminating the tedium and error
of manual coordinate conversions, adjustment for different window or
printer sizes, etc.

* Dimensioned drawings: Graphics can be specified with explicit
lengths (such as "3 cm",) so exactly-sized drawings can be printed.
(Well, as accurately as your printer's driver allows them to be!)

* Infinitely scalable: Frink's graphics are primarily designed to
work with shapes, not individual pixels, so they can be re-scaled
perfectly to display with full resolution on printers, in resizable
graphics windows, in image files, or in rescalable vector formats.

* High-quality shapes: Polygons and polylines are drawn with
properly-joined, angled corners.

* Anti-Aliasing: Lines and shapes are anti-aliased, eliminating
jagged edges. (When running under Java 1.2 or later. Frink's graphics
will also run on Java 1.1, but without antialiased edges.)

* Transparency (alpha channel): Allows transparent shapes and lines,
and see-through shapes to be drawn on top of other shapes. Anti-aliased
edges are drawn with proper transparency so they can be overlaid on any
background color or image. (Requires Java 1.2 or later for transparency.)

* Easy writing to files: Graphics can be easily written to various
file formats, including JPEG, PNG, and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
formats. PNG supports transparency (alpha channel) and allows
antialiased, semi-transparent lines and shapes to be overlaid over other
backgrounds or layers. SVG format allows infinite rescaling and perfect
rendering to high-resolution devices such as printers, and perfect
import into other vector graphics programs.

* Easy display on different devices: The same graphics object can be
created and then displayed on screen, printed to a printer, or written
to a file, using a single command.

Please see the Graphics section of the documentation (
http://futureboy.us/frinkdocs/#Graphics ) for detailed information on
this major update, including sample programs. This update consists of
over 7000 lines of new code, with a large number of new features and
capabilities.

Also, please feel free to contribute interesting graphical programs,
suggestions, or complaints! Or, if everything is perfect, you can just
make a donation! http://futureboy.us/frinkdocs/donate.html :)

--
Alan Eliasen | "Furious activity is no substitute
eliasen@... | for understanding."
http://futureboy.us/ | --H.H. Williams