Graphics::Simple 0.04

Graphics::Simple is a simple , device-independent graphics API for Perl.

SYNOPSIS

use Graphics::Simple;

line 100,100,200,200;
circle 50,50,25;
stop(); clear(); # Wait for a button press, clear the page

Ever had a Commodore C-64 or Vic-20 or some other of the machines of that era? Where doing graphics was as simple as

line 20,20,50,30;

and you didnt have to go through things like XOpenDisplay etc.

This module tries to bring back the spirit of that era in a modern environment: this module presents a simple, unified API to several different graphics devices - currently X (using Gtk and Gnome) and PostScript.

The interface is primarily made easy-to-use, starting from the idea that the above line command must work. Therefore, it exports most of the primitives by default (you can turn this off).

However, everything is not sacrificed in the name of simplicity: believing in "simple things simple, complicated things possible", this module also allows multiple windows (all the primitives also work as methods of window objects) as well as raw access to the underlying devices - although the device-independence is then lost. In future plans are some sort of interactions with the devices with which it is possible as well as the addition of more devices.

The use command currently accepts the forms

use Graphics::Simple;
use Graphics::Simple qw/line circle/;
use Graphics::Simple 300,400; # portrait paper
use Graphics::Simple 300,400, qw/line circle/;

i.e. the optional size of the default window first and then normal Exporter arguments.

Graphics::Simple has several different back-ends, currently GnomeCanvas, TkCanvas, PostScript and (not fully working yet) Fig. Other backends are expected.
To start Graphics::Simple with a given backend, you should set the environment variable GSIMPL to the value, e.g. by running your script with the command

GSIMPL=PostScript perl gt1.pl

or by setting the environment variable permanently in your shell, by

GSIMPL=PostScript
export GSIMPL

or

setenv GSIMPL PostScript