A
SAS/GRAPH device
generates graphical output in a specified format. It might send output
to a file on disk, such as a PNG file or a GIF file, or it might send
output directly to a hardware device, such as a Postscript printer
or a display. A
SAS/GRAPH device consists of two parts: a device entry
and device driver.
A device entry is a
SAS catalog entry of type DEV. Every device that is shipped with SAS/GRAPH
has a device entry in the SASHELP.DEVICES catalog. Device entries
contain parameters that control the following:
-
the appearance of the output when
styles are not in effect, such as dimensions and orientation, cell
size, colors, and default
SAS/GRAPH or device-resident fonts
-
where output is sent (when you
send output to the LISTING destination and use a
SAS/GRAPH device)
-
communications between the operating
environment and the device
-
host commands that are issued before
and after its driver produces output
-
the device driver that is used
to generate graphics output
A device driver is
the executable module that produces device-specific commands that
a device can understand. Every device entry specifies the name of
the executable module (device driver) that is to be used to generate
output. The device driver uses the parameters specified in the device
entry or the current style to tell it exactly how to do so.
When you specify a device,
you are specifying the name of a device entry.
SAS/GRAPH uses that device entry to determine
which device driver to use in order to generate final output. However,
most users do not ever need to deal directly with device drivers,
so for simplicity, this document simply refers to “devices”.