Point and Line Features

Abstract

The procedures presented in this chapter generate points and lines. In an interactive computing environment, points may be introduced by (a) entering their coordinates, (b) clicking with the computer mouse cursor at a location on the computer monitor screen, (c) importing coordinates from an external file, and (d) constructing points by various geometric methods. Of these four means of creating points, the first three are considered to be highly sensitive to the computing environment at hand, and not subject to any geometric considerations. For this reason, they are to be excluded from this publication. Lines and curves, much like points, they too can be generated by fairly much the same means as points. Thus, the procedures to be presented in this chapter are those that pertain to the points and lines that can be created by various constructions with the aide of coordinate geometry. Curves are to be presented in subsequent chapters.