gregoret@cgl.ucsf.edu (Lydia Gregoret) (07/27/89)
Here is a summary of replies I've received to my question about CricketGraph alternatives. I received enthusiastic replies about both Igor from WaveMetrics and Lonnie Abelbeck's Kaleidagraph. The responses about Igor we definitely more entusiastic. Here is a summary of some of the reported features of both packages. Some of the stuff about Igor is from a previous posting of several months ago from (Melissa) hines@cellbio.stanford.edu. Hope I'm not plagiarizing. Lydia Gregoret (gregoret@cgl.ucsf.edu, gregoret@ucsfcgl.bitnet) Igor: (pluses) Fast in general Screen updates are really fast Can plot as many points as memory can hold Data analysis: curve fitting to MANY different functional forms (Gaussian, Lorentzian, ...) plus error analysis. Can differentiate and integrate curves Can perform a fast Fourier transform Can print at the full resolution of the printer (hairlines) Data can be imported in many ways from other computers Can treat data as arrays and carry out operations on every element at once Has a macro (scripting) language Great techinical support (minuses) User interface takes some getting used to $195 WaveMetrics P.O. Box 2088 Lake Oswego, OR 97035 (503) 635-8849 AppleLink D1832 Kaleida: (pluses) By Lonnie Abelbeck of VersaTerm fame Maintains proportions when resizing, unlike Cricket Graph Has something called Fileline mode for drawing hairlines and has other good formatting/printing features Found to be much better than Cricket Graph by users $99-118 (minuses) Can not edit graph after you've saved it (No, thank you!) User interface a little difficult to get used to Can only have one graph open at a time but can print multiple graphs on one page.