Chikara Miyaji
University of Tsukuba, JAPAN

Abstract
Interactive graphics effectively expresses the dynamic structure of a model, and helps improve the intuitive understanding of concepts in the sciences. Also it can be used as a user interface tool.

Presently, Mathematica graphics are not interactive but instead are static and merely a side-effect of computation. It is not possible to select a part of a graphic using the mouse, nor can one make interactive dynamic relationships between graphical elements.

The graphics system introduced here is a MathLink program for creating interactive graphical objects which the user can manipulate.  In this program,

• all graphics — point, line, curve, and text — are represented as objects which can be manipulated by mouse;
• all graphics are manipulated by a kernel evaluation;
• the relationship between objects can be defined as Mathematica functions.