lim@prls.UUCP (Fredric Lim) (12/14/89)
I have heard that Igor is a good graphing program. My questions are
who makes it, where can I get it, and how much does it cost? Also,
is it simple to do data manipulation like Kaleidagraph's formula option?
Can you overlay line and scatter plots like Cricket Graph? Do you have
to have the data file open for the graph to exist (this is one feature
about Kaleidagraph that disturbed me). I am only interested in doing
line and scatter plots - all that business stuff I can live without.
Thanks in advance.
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Fredric J. Lim
UUCP: uunet!pyramid!prls!lim
Voice: (408) 991-5461 englandr@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Scott Englander) (12/16/89)
In article <29278@prls.UUCP> lim@prls.UUCP (Fredric Lim) writes: >I have heard that Igor is a good graphing program. My questions are >who makes it, where can I get it, and how much does it cost? Also, Igor $195 WaveMetrics PO Box 2088 Lake Oswego, OR 97035 503/635-8849 >is it simple to do data manipulation like Kaleidagraph's formula option? Yes. I've used Igor for much of the data manipulation i've done over the past year. It's great for this--it has a fairly simple, yet complete language, enabling you to write functions (compiled) or macros (interpreted) for things you do more than once. You can build an expression in a dialog box, or enter it in the command window. Here's an example: DynPress = 0.5 * rho * velocity^2 Here DynPress and velocity are "waves" (equivalent to columns in Cricket graph -- basically vectors) and rho is either another wave or a variable (constant). This single line preforms the operation on each element of each wave, and is incredibly fast, even for huge waves. >Can you overlay line and scatter plots like Cricket Graph? Do you have There is virtually no limit to the ways you can combine the display of several variables on the same axes. >to have the data file open for the graph to exist (this is one feature >about Kaleidagraph that disturbed me). I am only interested in doing Igor works with "experiments" or collections of data, graphs, macros, layouts, etc., rather than individual graphs or data files (even though all the components are stored in individual files if you want to get inside and fiddle with things). So after you're done working with a set of data and graphs and want to save it for future use, you give it one name - and the experiment is saved as this name with all its files in an associated folder. Then, the next time you want to work with it, just launch the experiment, and Igor proceeds to recreate all your tables, graphs, etc., EXACTLY AS YOU LEFT THEM. No more hunting around for missing data files ("Let's see, which data file did I use to create this graph?...") or straining to recall the manipulations you did. Igor saves all your previous commands, whether typed in directly or using menus, in a command history, visible in the upper portion of the command window. You can also re-execute complex commands by copying and pasting onto the command line. >line and scatter plots - all that business stuff I can live without. Igor doesn't do pie graphs, and no distinction is made between the graph types it does do when you create one. You can modify the way a given wave is displayed just by double-clicking on it. You can choose between dots, markers (selectable symbols, size, transparency, etc), lines (selectable thickness in fractional pixels, 5 or 6 dash types, color, smoothness), lines with markers, histogram bars, cityscape (as if you pushed the bars together and traced the upper contour), and maybe another that i forget. Also, you get true 300 dot per inch resolution on your graphs, not 72 like Cricket Graph. Igor makes Cricket Graph look like a toy. -- - Scott