Geometric Language

In 1994 I was working for company “ALS” to develop driving theory test program. The main problem was to prepare program questionnaire that reached 500 questions, most of them contained graphics. To do that I invented a simple programming language to deal with 2D graphics objects such as:

  • lines,
  • rectangles,
  • polygons,
  • circles,
  • ellipses,
  • etc

One of the most important construction of language is geometric transformation. Language supports: reflections, rotation, translation, scaling transformation. User may use transformations in very natural way, for example:

TRANSLATE (45,30) 
{
   REFLECTY() 
   {
      ROTATE (45)
        POLYGON (7,-15,70,-15,-70,-40,-70,0,-140,40,-70,15,-70,15,70)
   }
}

This means:

  • rotate polygon to 45 degrees
  • apply reflection transformation for rotated polygon
  • translate it 45 pixels up and 30 right

Presented here language lets encode once complex enough planar graphic object such as road signs or symbolic car image and after that use it in other images applying transformations. I implemented language parser that converted source code to byte-code and engine to execute byte-code. Important to note that this approach let me do very compact questionnaire – it was very significant in the 1994.


The main constructions of language are as follows:
Geometric Primitives
Geometric primitive Explanation
PIXEL(X1,Y1) Point
SEGMENT(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) Straight segment
POLYLINE(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,...Xn,Yn) Sequence of connected straight segments
POLYGON(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,...Xn,Yn) Closed sequence of connected straight segments
RECTANGLE(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) Rectangle
FRECT(X1,Y1,X2,Y2) Filled rectangle
TRIANGLE(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,X3,Y3) Triangle
CIRCLE(Xc,Yc,R) Circle
FCIRCLE(Xc,Yc,R) Filled circle
ELLIPSE(Xc,Yc,Rx,Ry) Ellipse
FELLIPSE(Xc,Yc,Rx,Ry) Filled ellipse
ARC(Xc,Yc,Fi1,Fi2,R) Arc
PIESLICE(Xc,Yc,Fi1,Fi2,R) Pie slice
SECTOR(Xc,Yc,Fi1,Fi2,Rx,Ry) Sector
OUTTEXTXY(X,Y,Literal) Displays text line at (X,Y)
OUTTEXTXY(X,Y,Filename) Displays text from file at (X,Y)
TEXTRECT(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,Literal) Displays text in rectangle
TEXTCENTER(Y,Literal) Displays horizontally centered text line

Graphic settings commands
Graphics setting command Explanation
COLOR(color) Set pen color
FILLSTYLE(style,color) Set fill pattern and color
LINESTYLE(style,width) Set line style and width
FONT(fontname) Set font

Planar Transformations
Transformation Explanation
TRANSLATE(dX,dY) Translation operation: (X,Y) -> (X+dX,Y+dY)
SCALE(COEFF) Scaling. Is performed in 4 steps:
  • Computation of geometric object centre of mass (Xc,Yc)
  • Translation of object to (0,0). In other words we do TRANSLATE(-Xc,-Yc). So after that object’s center of mass is moved to (0,0).
  • For each point of object (X,Y) perform multiplication: (X,Y) -> (X*COEFF,Y*COEFF)
  • Move object to the old place: TRANSLATE(Xc,Yc)
STRETCHX(COEFF) Scaling that affects only X-coordinates of object
STRETCHY(COEFF) Scaling that affects only Y-coordinates of object
REFLECTX (X,Y) -> (X,-Y)
REFLECTY (X,Y) -> (-X,Y)
TRANSPON (X,Y) -> (Y,X)
ROTATE(ANGLE) FI=(ANGLE/180)*PI
(X,Y) -> (X*COS(FI)-Y*SIN(FI),X*SIN(FI)+Y*COS(FI))

Examples of Geometric Language
Object view Object program in Geometric Language 
#include "TRIS.PIC"
COLOR (BLACK)
FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,BLACK)
//
//		BUDKA
//
TRANSLATE (45,2) {
   FRECT (-20,-30,20,30)
   // WINDOW
   COLOR (WHITE)
   FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,WHITE)
   TRANSLATE (0,-10)
      FRECT (-10,-10,10,10)
      COLOR (BLACK)
      FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,BLACK)
      // KRYSHA
      TRANSLATE (2,-25)
         FRECT (-22,-5,22,5)
}
// KOTEL
TRANSLATE (-30,13) {
  POLYGON (7,-50,0,50,0,50,-20,-40,-20,-45,-15,-48,-10,-49,-5)
  REFLECTX ()
    POLYGON (7,-50,0,50,0,50,-20,-40,-20,-45,-15,-48,-10,-49,-5)
}
// Chimney
TRANSLATE (-55,-17)
  FRECT (-7,-10,7,10)
// FUNDAMENT
TRANSLATE (-5,45)
  FRECT (-72,-10,72,10)
// BUMPER
TRANSLATE (-75,50)
  FRECT (-10,-10,10,10)
// Wheels
TRANSLATE (-50,55) {
  COLOR (BLACK)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,BLACK)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,15)
  COLOR(WHITE)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,WHITE)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,12)
}
TRANSLATE (-10,55) {
  COLOR (BLACK)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,BLACK)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,15)
  COLOR(WHITE)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,WHITE)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,12)
}
TRANSLATE (30,55) {
  COLOR (BLACK)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,BLACK)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,15)
  COLOR(WHITE)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,WHITE)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,12)
}

// DISKS
TRANSLATE (-50,55) {
  COLOR (BLACK)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,BLACK)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,5)
  COLOR (WHITE)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,WHITE)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,2)
}

TRANSLATE (-10,55) {
  COLOR (BLACK)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,BLACK)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,5)
  COLOR (WHITE)
  FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,WHITE)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,2)
}
//
// SMOKE
//
COLOR (BLACK)
FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,BLACK)
TRANSLATE (0,-115)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,12)
TRANSLATE (0,-90)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,20)
TRANSLATE (-20,-70)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,16)
TRANSLATE (-55,-30)
  PIESLICE (0,0,0,180,6)
TRANSLATE (-50,-40)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,6)
TRANSLATE (-40,-45 )
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,8)
TRANSLATE (-30,-50 )
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,10)
TRANSLATE (-25,-55)
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,10)
TRANSLATE (-30,-60 )
  FILLCIRCLE (0,0,10)

#include "COLORS.DEF"
FILLSTYLE (SOLID_FILL,DARKGRAY)
//COLOR (WHITE)
TRANSLATE (100,120) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "102.PIC"
	}
}
TRANSLATE (260,120) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "106.PIC"
	}
}
TRANSLATE (420,120) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "122.PIC"
	}
}
TRANSLATE (100,260) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "204.PIC"
	}
}
TRANSLATE (260,260) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "205.PIC"
	}
}
TRANSLATE (420,260) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "206.PIC"
	}
}
// Draudziamieji zenklai
TRANSLATE (100,400) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "318.PIC"
	}
}
TRANSLATE (260,400) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "322.PIC"
	}
}
TRANSLATE (420,400) {
	SCALE (2,5) {
#include "335.PIC"
	}
}

Other examples of images implemented in Geometric Language




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