fs@uwasa.fi (Filip Sawicki LAKE) (06/04/90)
I have written a simple interactive chart program called Fchart.
Here is a brief description of its features. This posting is followed
by installation notes (read before you do anything!) and 4 shar files
(smaller than 70KB each) in the alt.sources.
Program is based upon Gnuplot code, and uses a similar language for
the user interface. Four parts come directly from Gnuplot: help
facility, input scanner, doc maker and terminal drivers. Maybe, if
well tested and approved, program will be a part of Gnuplot in the
future.
Code can be freely redistributed if found useful, as long as the
copyright messages are retained. PLEASE DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE MODIFIED
CODE, rather e-mail me your suggestions.
Gnuplot Copyright (C) 1986, 1987, 1990 Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley
John Campbell, David Kotz, Russell Lang
Fchart Copyright (C) 1990 Piotr Filip Sawicki
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Fchart features:
* Interactive user interface, batch files accepted, on-line help
* Highly customizable output form (size, position, form, labels)
* Four main chart styles :
- normal side-by-side (adjacent) bars
- stacked bars
- layer-over-layer bars
- pies
* Many adjustable variations of styles:
- pie charts with slices exploding in any direction, combining
slices below specified threshold, drawing clockwise or counter-
clockwise
- bar charts with any value for base, drawn in any order with any
gravity (left, right, top, bottom of page)
- and lots more
* Drawing down or across several data files (i.e. standard or
transposed data)
* Accepted input:
- Gnuplot files
- private format
- columnar data files
* Missing values supported
* Partial input (from spec. row to spec. row); in any case, file is
read at once
* Internal vector font (Roman type) for better labeling and for
terminals that cannot rotate text (courtesy Joe Felsenstein,
joe@genetics.washington.edu)
* Smart autolabeling, arrows, lines, labels (drawn in any size and/or
direction).
* Wide range of supported terminals (well, that's a Gnuplot feature)
Faults, caveats, bugs:
* Gnuplot bugs
* Only 2D graphics by now (3D bars later ... perhaps)
* Some errors in bar centering (almost unvisible)
* Not very smart tick marking algorithm
* Makefile only for *NIX systems (if some poor soul is going to
write that for VMS or MS-DOS, please send it to me), though due to
#ifdefs program should work everywhere.
Future (in one month?):
* New, highly independent and expandable graphics kernel
* More fonts
* Bar filling algorithm
* Gnuplot patch 01 update
* Anything you request
---------------------------------------------
fi.
(Piotr Filip Sawicki fs@uwasa.fi)