martin@chiton.ucsd.edu (Martin Olivera) (11/20/90)
I'm looking for a good graphics package. It doesn't matter whether it's public domain or commercial (although if I find one I like in one of those ftp sites I don't mind). The graphics routines should be callable from fortran and "c" programs. Anybody has any recommendations?. These graphics routines are to be used in a scientific envirnonment, so emphasis is made in axes creation, log-log graphs, and all that. Contouring and 3-d graphs are also wanted. Martin martin@mollusk.ucsd.edu
alien@essex.ac.uk ("Adrian F Clark") (11/24/90)
In article <599@chiton.ucsd.edu> martin@chiton.ucsd.edu (Martin Olivera) writes: > I'm looking for a good graphics package. It doesn't matter whether it's > public domain or commercial (although if I find one I like in one of > those ftp sites I don't mind). The graphics routines should be callable > from fortran and "c" programs. Anybody has any recommendations?. > > These graphics routines are to be used in a scientific envirnonment, > so emphasis is made in axes creation, log-log graphs, and all that. > Contouring and 3-d graphs are also wanted. The best one I've ever come across is DIMFILM, written by John Gilbert of the University of London Computer Centre, Guilford Street, London, UK. It was originally written for the CDC6600/7600, and subsequently ported to VMS (by me) and Unix (well, UNICOS) by John. Its output is definitely of publishable quality, and it is probably the most programmer-friendly graphics package I've ever seen. The main code is also totally portable, though the device-specific stuff obviously isn't. ULCC licence the software, but you shouldn't have to pay for it. I think the only reason it hasn't become more widely used is that John doesn't try to persuade people to use it. -- Adrian F. Clark JANET: alien@uk.ac.essex INTERNET: alien%uk.ac.essex@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk FAX: (+44) 206-872900 BITNET: alien%uk.ac.essex@ac.uk PHONE: (+44) 206-872432 (direct) Dept ESE, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, C04 3SQ, UK.
martin@chiton.ucsd.edu (Martin Olivera) (11/27/90)
Thank you to all those that responded my inquiry. For those who are interested here is a summary of responses: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SM is a nice package. $250 site licence (for the whole site, e.g. whole University !). Nice, I used it for 1-2 years now. No 3D stuff, poor conturs. write to rhl@astro.princeton.edu to get more info. NCAR Graphics is very well done. $500 site licence but is not interactive (National Center of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Try PV-Wave (303-530-9000). Also there is the venerable DISSPLA (sp?) package, don't have a phone number. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We use NCAR Graphics. It has some limitations, but find it adequate for most of our Oceanographic applications. It is well documented with adequte number of examples. You also get the source code. You may get deatils from consult1@ncar.ucar.edu . They are very helpful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We use PVI (Precision Visuals, Inc.) products, and I'm very happy with them. The ones we have are PicSure Plus, DI-3000, Contouring, DI-TEXTPRO, and Metafile Interpreter. Most of our needs (>95%) are met by PicSure Plus, an interactive chart-drawing utility. Those things that can't be done with PicSure, we do with DI-3000 and Contouring. By the way, these aren't cheap, but the support is great, and the design philosopy makes use very easy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If I get more responses I'll post them. Martin