INFORMATION SYSTEMS

THE COMBINATION OF VECTOR (OR LINE-ORIENTED) AND RASTER (IMAGE-ORIENTED) COMPUTER GRAPHICS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE TECHNIQUES WOULD GREATLY IMPROVE THE PRODUCTIVITY AND USEFULNESS OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS. WHILE EXPLORATORY WORK IN THIS AREA HAS BEEN DONE SINCE ABOUT 1975, IT HAS BEEN COMPROMISED BY LIMITATIONS OF BOTH DISPLAY EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS. THE INTENT OF THIS PROJECT IS TO USE RECENTLY AVAILABLE EQUIPMENT WHICH CAN ADDRESS SERIOUS REQUIREMENTS OF LINE GRAPHICS AND IMAGING, COMBINED WITH AN ADVANCED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT, AS A TESTBED FOR INTEGRATING PREVIOUS RESEARCH RESULTS IN THIS AREA, DEFINING LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT AND POSSIBLE NEW APPROACHES, AND RECOMMENDING DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS FOR AN OPTIMAL SYSTEM FOR INTERACTIVE ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL LINE AND THEMATIC DATA.