[geeks] Re: Ham license question...

[geeks at sunhelp.org]

jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu writes:

>Ahh, finally some thing I do know.  Splines.  They are fun.  My personal
>definition of a spline curve is any curve that seems to simulate a spline
>on the screen.  Probably upsets some people, but darn it, metal splines
>were that difficult to categorize, why should computer splines be harder?

>BTW, in case anyone cares, Bezier curves are far simpler to code that most
>tutorials make it seem.  Heck, they are even pretty easy to graph on a
>TI-85.

Bezier curves rule. There's two ways to calculate a bezier curve -
one is geometric, and can be done in a half-dozen lines of code,
but is insanely ineficient. The "proper" way to do it involves 
more complex equations, but is fast. I don't know the efficient
method.

I wrote a postscript program once that draws successive approximations
of a bezier curve, so you can see how the geometric approach works.
Kinda neat.

-- david fischer -- dave at cca.org -- www.cca.org -- Cthulhu told me to. --