#N canvas 604 0 624 613 10;
#X obj 0 0 doc_demo;
#X obj 0 674 doc_f;
#X text 32 121 In other words the user should have total freedom and
total responsibility. The software is there to provide a mechanism
\, and not a policy. Thus it is a more appropriate tool for the DIY
(Do-It-Yourself) ethic than much other audiovisual software usually
is.;
#X obj 3 27 doc_section Introduction;
#X text 31 625 Finally \, by avoiding the use of global variables and
rather closely mimicking the flow of PureData atoms \, GridFlow is
closer to PureData's nature than GEM is.;
#X text 32 195 The core of GridFlow closely follows that principle
: although it was made as a video tool \, it first defines a manner
of managing information in general \, and a large set of mathematical
operations \, and only after that \, it uses these things in order
to implement an image-processing a video-processing tool.;
#X text 33 51 The philosophy that guides PureData is a simple but powerful
one : the software must first provide the user with generic flexible
tools rather than with readymade specialised components that embody
a certain audiovisual æsthetic.;
#X text 476 142 Do It Yourself;
#X text 463 71 maximise flexibility;
#X text 414 313 bridging a gap in language levels;
#X text 32 282 Thus when working at "the math level" you can design
your own effects in a quite flexible way without having to code externals
in C++. You can spend time worrying about the math instead of having
to worry about both the math and C++. Thus you are working at a middle
level between C++ and readymade components.;
#X text 476 395 unification;
#X text 427 409 (some kind of polymorphism);
#X text 263 465 NOTE: the words "vector" "matrix" "array" "object"
"polymorphism" etc \, have multiple different specialised meanings
\, so \, the former paragraph may be hard to read the right way.;
#X text 32 368 GridFlow provides a unifying view of multimedia information.
Several kinds of data -- raster graphics in any number of channels
\, coordinate transforms \, matrices \, vectors \, sound recordings
\, etc -- may all be represented by Grids (also known as multi-dimensional
arrays). Grids exist in several ways: they are usually streamed from
object to object \, but they can also be stored in memory \, or stored
into a file.;