Ten years have passed since the first edition of this book, a time sary to stress that the availability of colors further assists artistic span during which all activities connected with computers have ambitions. experienced an enormous upswing, due in particular to the ad­ The dynamics of display which can be achieved on the screen is vances in the field of semiconductor electronics which facilitated also of significance for the visual arts. It is a necessary condition microminiaturization. With the circuit elements becoming small­ for some technical applications, for example when simulating er and smaller, i. e. the transition to integrated circuits, the price dynamic processes. Although the graphics systems operating in real time were not designed for artistic purposes, they nonethe­ of hardware was reduced to an amazingly low level: this has de­ less open the most exciting aspects to the visual arts. While the finitely been an impulse of great importance to the expansion of computer technology, as well as to areas far removed from tech­ static computer picture was still a realization in line with the nology.