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We recommend that InterViews be adopted. Indeed, it is the only C++ package we have found that is feasible within the criteria specified, and both InterViews and the applications library distributed with it offer immediate benefits to the User Interface group. InterViews is immediately usable by this project upon its adoption.

We have found nothing that offers similar benefits to the Image Handling group. Of the packages we have examined, most offer some image handling capability, but all are ancilliary to the purposes of the packages of which they are a part, and are tailored to the needs of those packages. The best course we can suggest is to pick and choose among the available application packages, extracting those parts that are of interest, with the intent of modifying and building upon the code that is so borrowed. Feasible packages from which code can be borrowed are CIC and UNC's COOL, as well as portions of MIRIAD's MVX (e.g., palette manipulation, spreadsheeting, slice and dice, as well as sundry other features).

We also suggest that PEX (PHIGS+ Extended for X) be considered for use for the sake of its 3D capabilities. QUALIFICATION: as it comes with the X distribution, it is intended that PEX be installed under the X11 tree, and any given site might have chosen not to install that portion of X. Use of PEX, other than the simple borrowing of code, requires the installation of PEX at the site. While 3D capability is not a criterion for AIPS++, it should be advantageous to have that capability for the future, and we have found no other package that we can use towards this end. While its protocol is not fully implemented, its shortcomings are all in 3D areas that do not impair its utility to this project.

One graphics related issue seems to be in no specific group's area of responsibility. We note the availability of WIP, an existing package for the generation of production quality image hardcopy. While it is a part of MIRIAD, it is completely standalone, aside from its use of PGPLOT. It currently reads MIRIAD and FITS formats, but others can be added. The author (Jim Morgan, Maryland) is a member of BIMA, and attended the OOD/C++ class in Charlottesville this past January. The adoption of WIP, modified to read AIPS++ data format, gives this project an immediately available means of compositing and annotating images.

Caveat: note that the as-is adoption of packages such as InterViews, which does not have a class naming convention assuring uniquenesss across different packages, precludes the use of like-named classes elsewhere within AIPS++.