Glossary for Vapor Paint July 24 1992

Vapor Paint:
The Actual program. Also called Vee, VPaint. Named because I talked about it so much before writing it. The ARexx port's name is Vapor.
Work Screen:
The big grey hi-res interlaced screen which is the main interface to Vapor Paint. Sometimes called the work space, which also refers to the concept represented by that screen: a 6-dimensional space for drawing gestures. The Work screen is made of three planes: the Black, Yellow and Blue planes (not necessarily those colors!)
Black plane (Vector Plane):
The plane of the work screen used to show vector data.
Blue plane (Notation Plane):
The plane used by the work screen to show note vectors and "Blued" vectors, which are uneditable vectors associated with other key frames and Sequences.
Yellow plane (Rendering Plane):
The plane used for the display of raw mouse gestures, sketch info, radius and mass information, and workspace animations.
Icon:
Both the little box with a letter inside of it and an ID number on top of it and what it represents: a single conceptual drawing element, such as a vector, a pen color, a key frame. Also called an element or a link.
Icon Types:
There are several types of icons, and concepts behind them. I like to refer to them using an abbreviation and a pair of square brackets:
Icon tree:
A logical "tree" of icons (gestural and structural information) which is traversed top to bottom, left to right to create work screens and Vapor rendering.
Navigation:
For the work screen, changing the view of the data (mostly drawn vector-stuff, the views and the Mark). For Icons, moving from one icon to another.
Current:
The icon which is in the center of the icon navigation bar. If a vector, there will probably be a bound box displayed around it on the work screen. Sometimes called the Eye. There can also be a Current Key frame, View or Sequence. And the current time is the time displayed in the center of the SMPTE time bar, and is used in some workspace display options.
Time Bar:
The two SMPTE times shown near the top of the work screen. The time in the center is the Current time, which is updated when you use the "<" and ">" keys to navigate through a series of key frames. The right time is the time of the next key frame, if any. If you are working with a View, View times are used instead of Key frame times. When you refresh the Workscreen, it will consider the current time when displaying the difference between vectors you are currently editing and vectors in other key frames. These vectors are shown positioned to the closest key frame, unless the "SeeLerp" feature is on, where all vectors will be moved to their positions in the final animation. If you are above the level of keyframes, those numbers are invalid. Some kinds of icon navigation don't update them either. Use the "/" key to normalize these numbers!
Icon navigation bar:
The list of icons at the bottom left of the screen. The left most is the parent of the current icon, the right most is the first child, and the middle one is the current icon itself. Others are siblings before and after the current icon.
Macro Buttons:
The other Icons on the screen are Macro Buttons: when clicked, they perform an ARexx macro (named VMac#),
Poke Arrow:
The arrow in the icon bar shows where the next new or moved icon will be created (usually to the right of the current icon).
View:
The area of the work screen which will be rendered at the current time. The View has the same aspect ratio as is specified in the Animation icon: width*x aspect by height*y aspect. The view also has two "eyes" and a focal length which could be used to make stereo pictures. Of course, there is only one view, and it cannot move in Z,R or M planes. It animates by a polar coordinate system,and not by the linear system used by the vectors.
Selected:
A selected icon is shown with a yellow background. This operation is also called Highlighting. You can select subtrees of icons with the Shift-Up arrow keyboard command or with the "select vectors" rawmouse pen. A selected icon set, on the other hand, is a set of selected icons but only if the current icon is also selected - otherwise, the set is only the current icon! Selecting is also what I call the operation of using the right mouse button to make a vector the current vector. Were I more proper, this would be called "Currenting" or "Eye-ing". Selecting is sometimes also called "Choosing".
Marked:
The marked Icon is inverted in color, and can be moved with the MarkMove command to a new spot in the icon tree.
Raw Mouse:
These are mouse move gestures while they are being stored up and before they are converted into vectors or used in transformations and other operations.
Pen:
The Rendering pens are operations which transform vector information into commands for a renderer. These pens are represented by the P icon. They need not actually call the renderer, but may just set up some parameter.
Mouse Tool:
Mouse tools convert raw mouse moves into Vectors or other transformations. AKA Rawmouse Conversion Pens.
Renderer:
There are several operations called rendering. Work screen rendering is the act of interpreting the vector data as lines on the work screen, along with other information such as Selection and bound-boxing. When animating the workspace, the renderer draws into the black plane alone, compresses it and stores it for later replay in the yellow plane. This plane is also called the rendering plane of the work screen. "Real rendering" or "Vapor Rendering" is the actual purpose of this program: to interpret the icon tree of gestures and settings via rendering pens into actual pixels (or other output).
Pum:
"Pop-up-menu" which is the interface to various settings for the program and for the "insides" of the icons. Pums have their own keyboard conventions.
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