[comp.sys.amiga] AmigaPlot by James White

jea@merlin.cvs.rochester.edu (Joanne Albano) (08/01/90)

I just unpacked a version of AmigaPlot 1.4 shareware
program and it looks to be quite useful for plotting
data sets or computed values. It uses a command file
which specifies the number of data sets to be plotted
the symbols to be used and/or line types, the max-min
of the ordinate and abcissa. The plot may be saved
in IFF format for printing or import to other programs such as
Dpaint.

Does anyone know if J. White has released a more recent 
version (the date of 1.4 is 1/6/88)? With prefs printer support?

Could Post be used to convert these IFF files to a
"better than bitmapped" postscript plot?
Could the IFF file be converted through Pro Draw to
postscript?

Does anyone else have a favorite plotting program for Data Sets?

Joanne
 Joanne Albano, Center for Visual Science     (716) 275-3055
 Room 274 Meliora Hall, Univ. of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627 
 INTERNET: jea@cvs.rochester.edu

u800552@lanl.gov (James R. White) (08/01/90)

> jea@merlin.cvs.rochester.edu (Joanne Albano @ Univ. Roch. Center for Visual Sci.) writes

> I just unpacked a version of AmigaPlot 1.4 shareware
> program and it looks to be quite useful for plotting
> data sets or computed values. It uses a command file
> which specifies the number of data sets to be plotted
> the symbols to be used and/or line types, the max-min
> of the ordinate and abcissa. The plot may be saved
> in IFF format for printing or import to other programs such as
> Dpaint.

I am glad you liked it.  Actually, AmigaPlot dosen't save the
plot in IFF file format, but a public-domain program supplied
in the archive will.  If anybody fixes AmigaPlot to directly 
write an IFF file, I would be grateful if they would send me
the source.  I spent two weeks in an unsucessful attempt to 
write the IFF file generator.

> Does anyone know if J. White has released a more recent
> version (the date of 1.4 is 1/6/88)? With prefs printer support?

Version 1.4 is the latest version.  It is pretty solid, and I used
the program in my consulting nuclear engineering practice for over
three years.  The screendump portion of the program is supplied in
a file named ScreenDump.c, and is very straight-forward.  This has
the advantage of providing a 1-to-1 pixel-per-pixel dump of the 
screen to the printer.

> Could Post be used to convert these IFF files to a
> "better than bitmapped" postscript plot?
> Could the IFF file be converted through Pro Draw to
> postscript?

I guess anything is possible, but I don't know how to do it - 
I am unfamiliar with Pro Draw.

> Does anyone else have a favorite plotting program for Data Sets?

Not me.

> Joanne
>  Joanne Albano, Center for Visual Science     (716) 275-3055
>  Room 274 Meliora Hall, Univ. of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627
>  INTERNET: jea@cvs.rochester.edu
-- 
 James R. (Bob) White            ||  U800552@beta.lanl.gov
 Los Alamos National Laboratory  ||  Phone (505)-667-3853 (Work)
 N-6 / MS K559                   ||  Phone (505)-662-7554 (Home)
 Los Alamos, NM  87544  USA      ||  FTS 843-3853

garyw@ncuug.UUCP (Gary Whicker) (08/02/90)

In article <8702@ur-cc.UUCP> jea@cvs.rochester.edu (Joanne Albano) writes:
>Does anyone else have a favorite plotting program for Data Sets?
>
> Joanne Albano, Center for Visual Science     (716) 275-3055
 This has been a problem for awhile now. I finally ended up writing my own
plotting program that uses the PLPLOT library. I am almost finished with a
nice front end that will let you do data entry from formula or keyboard.
It will also let you plot multiple curves on the same graph. I wrote it
in a combination of C and CanDO. (CanDo can really save time for creating
nice graphical interfaces.) I am using PLPLOT 2.0 which is a really nice
library that allows you to output to many different devices, including the
pref. printer. I'm still trying to get a script language worked out for
it. 


[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
o"All dross of education and | Gary Whicker                        o
o civilization slipped from  |       - ..!uunet!ccncsu!ncuug!garyw o
o me, leaving only the       +-------------------------------------o
o primitive man, only the    | AMIGA - The computer for the        o
o primordial soul,           | -----   creative mind..             o
o red-taloned, ferocious."   +-------------------------------------o
o        - Robert E. Howard  | Writing artistic computer code is   o  
o                            | easy.. the machine tells no tales.  o
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

amr@dukee.egr.duke.edu (Anthony M. Richardson) (08/03/90)

From article <41@ncuug.UUCP>, by garyw@ncuug.UUCP (Gary Whicker):
> In article <8702@ur-cc.UUCP> jea@cvs.rochester.edu (Joanne Albano) writes:
>>Does anyone else have a favorite plotting program for Data Sets?
>>
>> Joanne Albano, Center for Visual Science     (716) 275-3055
>  This has been a problem for awhile now. I finally ended up writing my own
> plotting program that uses the PLPLOT library. I am almost finished with a
> nice front end that will let you do data entry from formula or keyboard.
> It will also let you plot multiple curves on the same graph. I wrote it
> in a combination of C and CanDO. (CanDo can really save time for creating
> nice graphical interfaces.) I am using PLPLOT 2.0 which is a really nice
> library that allows you to output to many different devices, including the
> pref. printer. I'm still trying to get a script language worked out for
> it. 
> 

I wrote a plotting program based on PLPLOT also. It's called ListPlot.
It doesn't use a scripting language, but uses command line options
instead. (I usually use a script to call ListPlot because of the
large number of options).  Here's the output from "ListPlot help":

Usage: cat data | ListPlot [Options]
Function: Yet another plotting filter. For help, enter "ListPlot help".
	For more verbose help, enter "ListPlot Verbose=on help".
Options:
	AngularUnit=[degrees|radians] default: degrees
	AnnotationScale=[dbl] default: 0.50
	AspectRatio=[dbl|Automatic] default: 0.61803399
	Boxed=[boolean|*] default: yes
	Domain=[interval|All|Automatic] default: All
	Gridding=[boolean] default: no
	Help=[All|all|*] default: All
	LabelScale=[dbl] default: 0.85
	LineColor=[set] default: {Black,Red,Green,Blue,Yellow}
	LineStyle=[set] default: {MS,MMSS,MMSmmS,mmS,mmSmmSMMS}
	Orientation=[portrait|landscape] default: landscape
	Origin=[interval|Automatic|Median] default: Automatic
	PlotColor=[boolean] default: no
	PlotJoined=[boolean] default: yes
	PlotPoints=[boolean] default: false
	PointScale=[dbl] default: 1.0
	PointSymbol=[Automatic|set] default: Automatic
	PlotTitle=[*] default: 
	PlotDevice=[xterm|tektronix|dg300|hp7470|hp7580|impress|tekfile|laserjetii|postscript|xfig] default: xterm
	PlotType=[linlin|loglin|linlog|loglog|polar] default: linlin
	PolarVariable=[angle|radius] default: angle
	Range=[interval|All|Automatic] default: All
	SubPages=[interval] default: 1.0,1.0
	SupplyAbscissa=[boolean] default: no
	TitleScale=[dbl] default: 1.0
	UseInputFile=[*] default: 
	UseOutputFile=[*] default: 
	Verbose=[boolean] default: off
	ViewPort=[rect] default: {0.1,0.1,0.9,0.9}
	XLabel=[*] default: 
	YLabel=[*] default: 
	XTick=[Automatic|interval] default: Automatic
	YTick=[Automatic|interval] default: Automatic

(Actually, this is the output from the UNIX version of ListPlot/PLPLOT.
The PlotDevice options for the Amiga version are something like
(from memory) amiga|preferences|iff|postscript|aegisdraw|tektronix|plt).

As you can see, it supports several different output formats (PlotDevice)
and plot types (PlotType).  It's setting on xanth in incoming and
I've been waiting for it to appear in comp.amiga.binaries for a couple
of months.

I can preview on a window on the Amiga, get user sizable hardcopy on
any preferences supported graphics printer, and get postscript or
IFF output for inclusion in AmigaTex documents.

(Sorry to be blowing my own horn here. I know there are several good
plotting programs out there now (and a few in the works), but
ListPlot is my personal favorite. Probably because I wrote it to
do what I want it to do :-))

Regards,
Tony Richardson

garyw@ncuug.UUCP (Gary Whicker) (08/04/90)

In article <1031@cameron.egr.duke.edu> amr@dukee.egr.duke.edu (Anthony M. Richardson) writes:
>From article <41@ncuug.UUCP>, by garyw@ncuug.UUCP (Gary Whicker):
>> In article <8702@ur-cc.UUCP> jea@cvs.rochester.edu (Joanne Albano) writes:
>>>Does anyone else have a favorite plotting program for Data Sets?

>>  This has been a problem for awhile now. I finally ended up writing my own
>> plotting program that uses the PLPLOT library. I am almost finished with a
>> nice front end that will let you do data entry from formula or keyboard.
>> It will also let you plot multiple curves on the same graph. I wrote it
>> in a combination of C and CanDO. (CanDo can really save time for creating

>I wrote a plotting program based on PLPLOT also. It's called ListPlot.
>It doesn't use a scripting language, but uses command line options
>instead. (I usually use a script to call ListPlot because of the
>large number of options).  Here's the output from "ListPlot help":
>
>I can preview on a window on the Amiga, get user sizable hardcopy on
>any preferences supported graphics printer, and get postscript or
>
>(Sorry to be blowing my own horn here. I know there are several good
>plotting programs out there now (and a few in the works), but
>ListPlot is my personal favorite. Probably because I wrote it to
>do what I want it to do :-))
>
>Regards,
>Tony Richardson

 	Since you are the one who ported PLPLOT and enhanced it for the
Amiga, you should be blowing your horn! You have done an excellent job..

Now for some questions, since I'm working on my front-end for it.:

- How can you change the size of the printed graph from within the
 program using PLPLOT? Right now the only way I can figure is to size
 the window, do an IFF save, and load it into a paint program to print
 it out. Another kludge is to go into prefs and play with the pixel limits
 for the printer. Also, the print options that say (landscape) and 
 (portrait) end up printing tiny. Can this be adjusted? Right now I am
 just using the bitmap dump. 

- When clearing a current plot to do a new one, I end up having to click
  the close gadget on the current plot window before the new one comes
  up. Is there a way to automate this?

- In the PLPLOT introduction it mentions the ability to make bar, and pie
  graphs. I can see how to do a bar graph fairly easily, but I'm stumped
  on how to get pie graphs setup. Any suggestions?

Thanks for any answers you might be able to give me. And thanks for a nice 
library that will finally let my Amiga do some serious plotting for me.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
o"All dross of education and | Gary Whicker                        o
o civilization slipped from  |      - ..!uunet!ccncsu!ncuug!garyw  o
o me, leaving only the       +-------------------------------------o
o primitive man, only the    | AMIGA - The computer for the        o
o primordial soul,           | -----   creative mind..             o
o red-taloned, ferocious."   +-------------------------------------o
o        - Robert E. Howard  | Writing artistic computer code is   o  
o                            | easy.. the machine tells no tales.  o
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

amr@dukee.egr.duke.edu (Anthony M. Richardson) (08/05/90)

I doubt that this has enough interest to warrant posting, but
mail bounced.  Gary asked some questions about PLPLOT:

From article <44@ncuug.UUCP>, by garyw@ncuug.UUCP (Gary Whicker):
> Now for some questions, since I'm working on my front-end for it.:
> 
> - How can you change the size of the printed graph from within the
>  program using PLPLOT? Right now the only way I can figure is to size
>  the window, do an IFF save, and load it into a paint program to print
>  it out. Another kludge is to go into prefs and play with the pixel limits
>  for the printer. Also, the print options that say (landscape) and 
>  (portrait) end up printing tiny. Can this be adjusted? Right now I am
>  just using the bitmap dump. 

If you select the PLPLOT preferences driver,
PLPLOT uses the preferences selected density and page size limits and 
ignores most of the other preferences stuff.  If you have selected "ignore" 
in the page size limit options then a full page graph is produced.
The other options operate as described in the Enhancer manual.
Only "ignore" and "bounded" preserve aspect ratio.
(Usually unimportant unless x and y must have the same scaling
as for pie charts or polar plots).  I normally set the page
size limit to a specific size (say 4"x4") and then let PLPLOT
create a plot of exactly that size.  (This also requires less
memory than a full page graph.)

You're actually asking about the "Print" menu selection from the Amiga
window driver.  This uses the same menu options as the preferences
driver above, but does not maintain aspect ratio.  Going straight
to the preferences driver produces the highest quality output.

In answer to your question, "it's in there". PLPLOT supports more than
just the preferences pixel setting limits.  It may not be convenient
and a better solution would be to prompt the user for the size
and then to change the preferences options while printing the graph.
(Or maybe one of the multiprefs type programs?)

> - When clearing a current plot to do a new one, I end up having to click
>   the close gadget on the current plot window before the new one comes
>   up. Is there a way to automate this?

This is the way the Amiga window driver is designed to work.  
I thought this was the best way to do it. You can
hack the beepw() routine in amiga.c so that, instead of calling
eventwait() to wait for a "close" event, you do something else.

> - In the PLPLOT introduction it mentions the ability to make bar, and pie
>   graphs. I can see how to do a bar graph fairly easily, but I'm stumped
>   on how to get pie graphs setup. Any suggestions?

Just use plenv() to set up the graphics environment for a one-to-one
aspect ratio and then use plfill() to fill in sections of the pie.
example13 in the examples directory shows how to do this.

> Thanks for any answers you might be able to give me. And thanks for a nice 
> library that will finally let my Amiga do some serious plotting for me.

You're welcome. I hope I've helped.  I look forward to trying out your
program!

Tony Richardson      amr@dukee.egr.duke.edu