[comp.text] fig as standard?

hartzell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (George Hartzell) (09/20/88)

I have some undergraduate students who are going to work on a simple
package for doing x-y graphs and histograms.  Ultimately there will be a
menu driven interface, a batch and/or custom (pic like) language
interface, and a library of routines that can be used for other
applications.  It seems to me that there are now several graphics
editors that use the "fig format", so it makes sense to me to use it if
possible.  This has the advantage that other people have already written
the translators, etc...  What I don't know is whether there are any
significant drawbacks to using it.  Some degree of device independence
is important (different flavors of laser printers, etc...), and it is
important that we be able to include these figures in troff and TeX
documents.

I have found the transfig package (from june.cs.washington.edu), which
has some documentation about the fig stuff.  Is there anything else that
I would find helpful.  Does anyone have any helpful hints?
g.
George Hartzell			                 (303) 492-4535
MCD Biology, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309
hartzell@Boulder.Colorado.EDU  ..!{ncar,nbires}!boulder!hartzell

toms@ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider) (09/22/88)

In article <3562@boulder.Colorado.EDU> hartzell@boulder.Colorado.EDU
(George Hartzell) asked about device independent xy plotting and graphics.

George: as you know, I when I was in Boulder I wrote the xyplo program (in
Pascal), and this program does reasonable xy graphics.  Xyplo's output is a
pure ascii graph description language, and I now have a conversion program
(dops) that converts to PostScript, and runs fine on both Suns and Apple
Laserwriters.  Gary Stormo's GenHis program now also works to GENerate
HIStograms.  I can send copies of these programs to people interested.  If
there is enough demand I'll put it up for anonymous ftp.

I've used the fig program (Original author: Supoj Sutanthavibul, perhaps not
the same as transfig?) , and found it works wonderfully, though there are some
bugs in it.  There is a converter to PostScript that (unfortunately) produces
lines that exceed the Laserwriter buffer (they shouldn't have allowed any lines
to exceed 70 characters, to be safe) - I have a filter that fixes that.
  Tom Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
  Frederick, Maryland
  toms@ncifcrf.gov

kwok@iris.ucdavis.edu (Conrad &) (09/23/88)

In article <3562@boulder.Colorado.EDU> hartzell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (George Hartzell) writes:

   I have some undergraduate students who are going to work on a simple
   package for doing x-y graphs and histograms.  Ultimately there will be a
   menu driven interface, a batch and/or custom (pic like) language
   interface, and a library of routines that can be used for other
   applications.  It seems to me that there are now several graphics
   editors that use the "fig format", so it makes sense to me to use it if
   possible.  This has the advantage that other people have already written
   the translators, etc...  What I don't know is whether there are any
   significant drawbacks to using it.  Some degree of device independence
   is important (different flavors of laser printers, etc...), and it is
   important that we be able to include these figures in troff and TeX
   documents.

The fig format itself is quite feasible but the fig programs (FIG 1.4,
FIG 1.4-TFX or xfig) do not understand or use all the parameters. For
example, the fig file created by the fig programs always set the
resolution to 80 dpi. I don't think they can handle any resolution
other than 80 dpi (or they may just ignore that field). However, 80
dpi may not be sufficient for drawing graphs. On the other hand, I
believe most programs in Transfig can handle any resolution.  A graph
drawing program may have to operate in two modes. A draft mode to create
a fig file in 80 dpi such that it can be previewed or edited by
fig programs and a high resolution mode to create fig file for final output.

   I have found the transfig package (from june.cs.washington.edu), which
   has some documentation about the fig stuff.  Is there anything else that
   I would find helpful.  Does anyone have any helpful hints?

The latest version of Transfig can be found on svax.cs.cornell.edu.
This version includes support for TFX (TransFig eXtension) and fig2epic.

--Conrad
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