# Computer Graphics using c++ on a Mac?



## kninja1 (Dec 21, 2003)

hey everyone,

Does anyone know of any reference websites/tutorials and/or books pertaining to/for computer graphics programming using c++ on a Mac? anyone suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks
kninja1


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## Arden (Dec 22, 2003)

You mean like programming the next Photoshop killer?  I doubt you'd be able to make many good images using simply code.


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## chevy (Dec 22, 2003)

You will find basic documentation and sample code on Apple web site - Developers.


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## kninja1 (Dec 22, 2003)

thanks, I will look into it, and no, I don't think I am capable of developing an app better than photoshop. I'm taken a computer graphics course next semester and the app(s) they are using is window based. I just wanted to know, so I could also learn on my Mac.


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## Arden (Dec 23, 2003)

Okay, now you're mixing two separate genres.  Computer graphics is, at the core, playing with pixels.  Computer science, on the other hand, is playing with processor instructions, and it is under this category that programming falls.

So now you've confused me.  Are you taking CS or CG?  Or are you planning to port this Windows program?  If so, I wish you the best of luck.


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## cfleck (Dec 23, 2003)

>> Computer science, on the other hand, is playing with processor instructions

not true.   it is almost insulting to hear this.  theory of computation, algorithms, ai, networking, graphics, etc. are all "part" of computer science.  programming is (to put it bluntly) the blue-collar job of computer science.  

in response to the original question, at my school, there was a graphics class that used opengl.  presumably the same rules apply to a mac that would apply to the linux boxen that were used for that class.  just a thought.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Dec 23, 2003)

I'll have to agree with cfleck on this one... I'm a computer science major, and you wouldn't believe the amount of programming that we actually do.  9 hours are programming, and the rest of the 90 required hours are devoted to other things, like understanding data structures, performing calculus, analyzing statistics and what-not.  Computer science isn't programming, although there's a little bit of programming required in the degree.

Computer graphics, at least at my university, is not even closely related to computer science.  Computer graphics embodies art theory, visualization, and an understanding of layout and presentation.  Sure, you work on computers, and sometimes have to delve into a little code, but it sure ain't computer science, that's for sure, and the computer science majors who decide to minor in computer graphics find that it's no easier to study computer graphics even with their computer science backgrounds.

You can't sit back and say that one study falls under one category and another study falls under another category unless you're actually involved in that line of work or are actively studying in those areas.  I was damn surprised to find this out when I first started my degree and quickly found out that it's not what I thought it would be.  Computer science majors don't necessarily sit in front of computers and program Java/C++ in their classes, and computer graphics majors don't necessarily work with 3D animation and character modeling in their classes.


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## Viro (Dec 23, 2003)

I think he's talking about graphics programming (e.g. making a game, etc) on the Mac. A good place to look would be http://nehe.gamedev.net as this site has quite a number of tutorials on OpenGL. While most of it is Windows based, there are OS X ports of the source code, so that should get you started.


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## kninja1 (Dec 24, 2003)

Hey sup, yea it's a computer science course, but I agree with cfleck. Algorithms is actually a preq. for this course. Seems like the prof. will be working with general programming packages,some of them are (which maybe portable but still platform dependent) for ex. Borland's BGI, Windows GDI, DirectX, etc, and also standard Graphics packages which I believe are platform independent like PHIGS, and OpenGL. So yeah I'll definitely look into the openGL stuff.  thanks again.


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