Dr. Dobb's, July 1996
Graphics Programming

Additional resources (listings and source code) for the articles below can be found here.

Optimizing the Performance of VRML Worlds
Andrea L. Ames
John L. Moreland
David R. Nadeau

VRML, the "Virtual Reality Modeling Language," is a platform-neutral file format used to describe 3-D shapes and scenery for the World Wide Web. Different platforms, however, create different VRML-performance bottlenecks. Our authors present optimization techniques that let your VRML worlds look good and perform well.

3-D Surface Contours
Bill Lorensen
Will Schroeder

Visualization is the ability to transform complex data into visual form. What makes this possible is the contouring algorithm presented here.

SPIFF: Still Picture Interchange File Format
James D. Murray

James examines SPIFF, the "still picture interchange file format," which is a generic bitmap file format defined by the ISO for the storage, compression, and interchange of color or grayscale continuous-tone images and bitonal image data.

Automatically Generating Java Documentation
Gary Aitken

Because Java doesn't require a header file, documentation is really important in a Java environment. Gary examines some of the documentation issues related to Java programming and discusses how to automatically generate documentation for Java classes using javadoc.

Loop Splitting Under Windows NT
Charles Letner

Charles presents a C++ class that lets you use multiple threads to implement "loop splitting"that is, dividing processing of a loop over multiple processorsunder Windows NT.

Monitoring Data in Real Time
Tony Garcia
Jeff Woodard
Craig Liddell

Our authors describe the design and implementation of a real-time system that monitors and logs environmental characteristics. Among other features, the system accommodates remote access to the data via the World Wide Web.

The WinMock Library
Joseph Hlavaty

Joe created WinMock, short for "Windows Sockets Mockup Tool," for testing and debugging Windows Sockets applications, without a network connection.

Examining the SmartSockets Toolkit
Douglass L. Campbell

SmartSockets, a message-oriented toolkit for developing systems that require IPC, lets you embed messaging capabilities into your applications so that they can communicate across different operating systems.

Help File Web Links
Robert Lord

Bob shows how to embed links to World Wide Web URLs in your standard Windows help files. What makes this technique possible is a DLL implementation of a WinHelp macro that accepts a URL parameter.

Programming Paradigms
Michael Swaine

As Michael finds out this month, what can go wrong, will go wong, er, wrong.

C Programming
Al Stevens

In building his multimedia CD-ROM project, Al implements a derived application class for the dialog-based setup program. He also takes his first sip of Java.

Algorithm Alley
Carlo Pescio

Dr. Pescio extends Cichelli's hashing algorithm to obtain a general implementation that improves the original algorithm's performance by more than an order of magnitude.

Undocumented Corner
Robert R. Collins

The Pentium Pro's undocumented Physical Address Extensions (PAE) let the processor address up to 64 GB of physical memory (36-bit address bus), and access page sizes of 2 MB.

Programmer's Bookshelf
William Stallings

Emerging Internet protocols are discussed in IPng: Internet Protocol Next Generation, edited by Scott Bradner and Allison Mankin, and IPv6: The New Internet Protocol, by Christina Huitema.

Editorial
Jonathan Erickson
Letters
Swaine's Flames
Michael Swaine
Of Interest
Monica E. Berg