"VTK Users guide" - worth it?

[Lisa Sobierajski Avila]

Hello Vincent,

I am sorry that you did not find the VTK User's Guide useful. What sort of 
information were you looking for on the TIFF reader / writer? There are 
examples that use the TIFF reader / writer. For example, look at 
graphics/examplesTcl/TexturedCube.tcl, 
imaging/examplesTcl/TestAllWriters.tcl, or 
imaging/examplesTcl/TestTIFFReader.tcl. Once a TIFF image is read into VTK, 
it looks just like any other image data so detailed information on the TIFF 
file format should not be necessary for an understanding of VTK.

Lisa

At 05:30 PM 4/18/00 -0400, Vincent Guido wrote:


>Steven;
>      I have seen the User's Guide, and a friend of mine took the 
> class.  We have
>been working with VTK on and off for about one year.  I have no graphics
>knowledge, but extensive programming experience in C/C++ both in UNIX and 
>Visual
>C++.  But even with the two books and the course my friend and I are still
>having a difficult time doing the simplest things.  For example, the table of
>contents for the user's guide (online) has a section that lists supported file
>types, but it is incomplete: It does not reference TIFF files.  Yet there are
>two classes for reading and writing TIFF files (see the online manual pages).
>Speaking for my friend and I, we do not find the information available (that
>includes the User's Guide, the VTK Toolkit book, and the course), to be
>user-friendly.
>
>I also found the web-site FAQ describe 400-500 code examples listed by
>downloading the source code from the web-site.  Again, it was not obvious 
>which
>tar'ed file to download, and when I found it, there were no examples on 
>working
>with TIFF files in the so called 400-500 code examples.
>
>I don't know how VTK rates as a graphics package, but it leaves a lot to be
>desired in terms of getting started with it as a programmer.
>
>Vinny
>
>
>
>
>
>"Stephane M." <sequence004 at yahoo.com> on 04/18/2000 10:15:53 AM
>
>To:   vtkusers at public.kitware.com
>cc:    (bcc: Vincent Guido/Telcordia)
>Subject:  "VTK Users guide" - worth it?
>
>
>
>
>Hi
>
>I'm wondering about the VTK users guide.  I have
>already the Visualization book, this is maybe a good
>book about visualization but absolutely not a complete
>VTK users guide.
>
>So...  the official VTK guide is 60$.  It is a little
>expensive for 300 pages.  And more, the shipping for
>Canada is 35$!!!  Amazon.com charges 6$ for the
>shipping of a book!
>
>With thoses high prices, i'll defer my purchase until
>someone convince me that it is worth the trouble.
>
>-Is this book a good reference?
>-If i want to "hack" a little in VTK (to use some
>openGL primitives unavailable via the VTK API), is
>there some information about that?
>
>If not... is there any good web based documentation
>and examples?
>
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