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Reviewer: Gary Carlson

The graphical kernel system (GKS) was published as an international standard in 1985. The GKS standard is primarily concerned with graphical workstations, but does apply in a more general sense to all graphics work. This book is intended to help the user understand the GKS standard, without the burden of mastering all details of the complete standard; it does a good job. This book is essential for anyone working with computer graphics. It is clearly written and covers the fundamental topics of the GKS standard. The book is a translation from German, but the translation is well done. It reads smoothly, with no noticeable awkward phrases due to translation. Most of the GKS functions are given in the GKS notation and followed by an implementation in FORTRAN. The goals and purposes of GKS are provision of a uniform interface between the application and the graphics systems, provision of an application-independent function set for computer graphics, development of a methodology for computer graphics, development of guidelines for manufacturers of computer devices, and coverage of a variety of requests. The book gives a complete coverage of these goals. The 155 pages of text are followed by 257 pages of appendices, mostly covering the FORTRAN implementation of GKS. Selected functions are also given in C. T he bibliography and index are good, though both could be expanded.