Andrew Glassner’s Notebook

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Andrew Glassner's NotebookIn 1996 I started writing a regular column for IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications. After about three years of columns, I thought it would be fun to revisit them and see what could use updating. I realized that there were lots of updates I could make, and lots of material that we cut for space reasons that I really wanted to restore. So I collected the first three years of columns, restored them to their original full-length form, expanded and revised each one, and fixed all the errors I knew of. The result was this very handsome book published by Morgan Kaufmann.

The idea that graphics is fun is reflected in the book’s subtitle, Recreational Computer Graphics. The column was a wonderful opportunity to investigate things that interested me. Every day, as we wander around and just live our lives, there are interesting things all around us. There’s a cool colorful formation in the sky, or a neat way of tiling the floor beneath our feet. There are children’s toys that are based on the interaction of simple patterns, and there are real physical shapes that we can build using nothing but some paper and our hands. The world full of great stuff, and we’re often too busy to really look into the things that catch our eye. This column gave me the excuse to really dig into some of these topics, understand them, and share the best parts with others.

The cover is a notebook-style collage of some illustrations from different chapters, evoking the idea of a notebook.

Here’s the table of contents:

  • Preface
  • 1 Solar Halos and Sun Dogs
  • 2 Frieze Groups
  • 3 Origami Polyhedra
  • 4 Going the Distance
  • 5 Situation Normal
  • 6 Signs of Significance
  • 7 Net Results
  • 8 The Perils of Problematic Paramaterization
  • 9 Inside Moire Patterns
  • 10 Upon Reflection
  • 11 Circular Reasoning
  • 12 Aperiodic Tiling
  • 13 Know When To Fold
  • 14 The Triangular Manuscripts
  • 15 Polygons Under the Covers
  • 16 String Crossings
  • Index

Though now out of print, you can find the book at many online booksellers, like Abe’s Books and Amazon.