- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
The author would, it seems, want graphics programming that can be controlled with mathematical (geomeric and coordinate) algorithms.
The GD library fits this. Bindings are available in Perl, PHP, and Pthon, as well as Visual basic.
These do not use line numbers, but, if required, Perl at least is flexible enough to use older conventions like labels and goto statements, as does Basic. Its insistence on sigils like '$' for variables and an arrow -> for functions of a graphics object may seem a bit wierd to a Basic programmer, but that should be a minor hurdle. An example:
use GD::Simple;
# create a new image
$img = GD::Simple->new(400,250);
# draw a red rectangle with blue borders
$img->bgcolor('red');
$img->fgcolor('blue');
$img->rectangle(10,10,50,50);
# draw an empty rectangle with green borders
$img->bgcolor(undef);
$img->fgcolor('green');
$img->rectangle(30,30,100,100);
# move to (80,80) and draw a green line to (100,190)
$img->moveTo(80,80);
$img->lineTo(100,190);
etc.. see http://search.cpan.org/~lds/GD-2.35/GD/Simple.pm
