SGI device interfaces for most plotter devices already exist, and adding support for new devices is straightforward. Sources for the SGI device translators supplied with the distributed system are maintained in the directory iraf$vms/gdev/sgidev. NOAO serves as a clearinghouse for new SGI plotter device interfaces; contact us if you do not find support for a local plotter device in the distributed system, and if you plan to implement a new device interface let us know so that we may help other sites with the same device.
The older NCAR kernel is used to generate NCAR metacode and can be interfaced to an NCAR metacode translator at the host system level to get plots on devices supported by host-level NCAR metacode translators. The host level NCAR metacode translators are not included in the standard IRAF distribution, but public domain versions of the NCAR implementation for VMS systems are widely available. A site which already has the NCAR software may wish to go this route, but the SGI interface will provide a more efficient and simpler solution in most cases.
The remaining possibility with the current system is the calcomp kernel. Many sites will have a Calcomp or Versaplot library (or Calcomp compatible library) already available locally. To make use of such a library to get plotter output on any devices supported by the interface, one may copy the library to the hlib directory and relink the Calcomp graphics kernel.
A graphcap entry for each new device will also be required. Information on preparing graphcap entries for graphics devices is given in the GIO design document, and many actual working examples will be found in the graphcap file. The best approach is usually to copy one of these and modify it.
Those VMS/IRAF sites that have VAX/VMS workstations running the VWS display system can use the UISDISP.EXE display task in [IRAF.VMS.UIS] for image display. This is a standalone IMFORT program, i.e. it does not communicate with the tasks in the TV.DISPLAY package. See the file uisdisp.txt in the same directory for information on using the task.
Some interfaces for hardware image display devices are also available, although a general display interface is not yet included in the system. Only the IIS model 70 and 75 are currently supported by NOAO. Interfaces for other devices are possible using the current datastream interface, which is based on the IIS model 70 datastream protocol with extensions for passing the WCS, image cursor readback, etc. (see the ZFIOGD driver in iraf$vms/gdev). This is how all the current displays, e.g., imtool and saoimage, and the IIS devices, are interfaced, and there is no reason why other devices could not be interfaced to IRAF via the same interface. Eventually this prototype interface will be obsoleted and replaced by a more general interface.
If there is no IRAF interface for your device, the best approach at present is to use the IMFORT interface and whatever non-IRAF display software you currently have to construct a host level Fortran or C display program. The IMFORT library provides host system Fortran or C programs with access to IRAF images on disk. Documentation on the IMFORT interface is available in A User's Guide to Fortran Programming in IRAF -- The IMFORT Interface, Doug Tody, September 1986, a copy of which is included in the IRAF User Handbook, Volume 1A. If you do not have an existing image display program into which to insert IMFORT calls, it is not recommended that the TV.DISPLAY package code be used as a template. Rather, a standalone image display server should be constructed using the datastream protocol in the iraf$vms/gdev/zfiogd.x driver mentioned above (but that could be a very lengthy job; contact the Hotline).