“A Metafile for efficient sequential and random display of graphics” by Reed

Graphics metafiles have been in use at the Los Alamos National Laboratory since early 1977. The first metafile format was defined in 1976 and has been updated several times to allow efficient graphics support in the Los Alamos computing environment. History and current applications of the Common Graphics System (CGS) Metafile are given. Design objectives, details of the format, and random access extensions incorporated in the Metafile are described.

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