In Place of an Introduction∗

This edition of the notes has been edited for Math 428, 1997. Marginalia, such as this, provide additional guidance in anticipation of a future revision. An online distribution in the form of .dvi files is here made, 28 August 1998. The term rtica, short for real-time interactive computer animator, is simply a descriptive name for what computer graphics programmers build for themselves in the course of their work. It is the harness with which they break some bronco hardware or tame some shrewish software library. It might be the workbench on which to assemble an elaborate graphics application; or it could be the graphics package itself, if that is what is destined for the marketplace. An rtica is shared with our students and collaborators; it’s merged with other software; it is abandoned and taken up again at a more propitious time when better hardware or networking becomes available.