CGAL users discussion list

["Laurent Rineau (GeometryFactory)" <>]

Le Jeudi 01 Avril 2010 23:49:13, James Le Cuirot a écrit :
> Hello,
> 
> The Ray_2 class has a function called supporting_line(). It sounds
> useful but I'm not quite sure what it does. The docs say it returns the
> line supporting r which has the same direction. What is a supporting
> line exactly?

Given a (non-degenerated) ray, there is exactly one line that contains it. 
That is the supporting line of the ray.

Another example: given a triangle in 3D there is exactly one plane that 
contains it, that the supporting plane.

I think you get the point, now.

-- 
Laurent Rineau, PhD
Release Manager of the CGAL Project       http://www.cgal.org/
R&D Engineer at GeometryFactory           http://www.geometryfactory.com/