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===GRASS===
The original version of GRASS was developed by [[Tom DeFanti]] for his 1974 [[Ohio State University]] Ph.D. thesis.{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}} It was developed on a [[PDP-11]]/45 driving a Vector General 3DR display,{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}} and as the name implies, this was a purely [[vector graphics]] machine. GRASS included a number of vector-drawing commands, and could organize collections of them into a hierarchy, applying the various animation effects to whole "trees" of the image at once (stored in arrays).{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}}
After graduation, DeFanti moved to the [[University of Illinois at Chicago|University of Illinois, Chicago Circle]]. There he joined up with [[Dan Sandin]] and together they formed the ''Circle Graphics Habitat'' (today known as the ''[[Electronic Visualization Laboratory]]'', or EVL). Sandin had joined the university in 1971 and built the [[Sandin Image Processor]], or IP. The IP was an [[analog computer]] which took two video inputs, mixed them, colored the results, and then re-created TV output. He described it as the video version of a [[Moog synthesizer]].{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}}
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===ZGrass and UV-1===
In 1977 DeFanti was introduced to Jeff Frederiksen, a chip designer working at [[Dave Nutting Associates]]. Nutting had been contracted by Midway, the videogame division of Bally, to create a standardized [[graphics processing unit|graphics driver chip]]. They intended to use it in most of their future arcade games, as well as a [[video game console]] they were working on which would later turn into the [[Astrocade]]. Midway was quite interested in seeing the GRASS language running on their system, and contracted DeFanti to port it to the platform. A number of people at the Habitat, as well as some from Nutting, worked on the project, which they referred to as the '''Z Box'''. GRASS3 running on it became '''Zgrass'''.{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}}
The Z-Box was a [[raster graphics]] machine, unlike the original GRASS systems, so while most of the GRASS3 style was maintained in Zgrass, it added a number of commands dedicated to raster images. This included an extensive set of [[bit blit|bit block transfer]] commands in order to simulate [[sprite (computer science)|sprite]]s, something the hardware didn't include.{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}} The work would never be released by Midway, but the Circle would produce machines based on it as the [[Datamax UV-1]].
The last version of GRASS was '''RT/1''', a port of GRASS to other platforms that divorced the language from the display model and allowed it to be ported to other platforms. Versions existed for [[DOS]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]] platform using [[OpenGL]], [[HP-UX]], [[AIX operating system|AIX]], [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] and [[Amiga]].{{sfn|DeFanti|1980}} The language remains similar to the earlier versions, so the reason for the change of name is unclear.
== Description ==
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