jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (05/10/91)
In article <1991May9.190850.25384@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, sjhg9320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Scott Jerome Howard) writes: > Kaleidagraph and Igor are very good for Scientific and Engineering > purposes, but DeltaGraph produces much better output on Postscipt devices > and is one heck of a lot easier to learn and has much better documentation > and technical support. Deltagraph also lets you directly import CricketGraph, > Excel, PICT2, and EPSF files. But you've overlooked the most serious shortcoming of DeltaGraph: it's a dog. We purchased it to do exactly what has been described here, and it should have been called Beta-Graph, as far as we can tell. Constantly quitting unexpectedly, out of memory, reverting to old data sets after long hours of editing (grrrr....), only one data file can be open at a time even under multifinder, odd behavior with colors (for example, axis ticks and numbers are sometimes printed in 'white', despite being black on the screen, so what prints on white paper? Nothing, that's what...). Well, I could go on and on -- in fact, our lab bug report is now over twenty pages long, but tech support has been horrible, insisting that it must be our system software (we've used 6.05 and 6.07, no difference), or INIT conflicts (we've tried on three different computers which share NO INITs), or, well, we don't know but it's certainly not OUR fault. Click. I've slammed this package before, and I'll continue to do so until they release a decent piece of work. The current version is awful. (It has potential, to give it credit. If it were executed properly, it could be very nice software. Maybe in the next version....). My ten cents (it was a long post :-) ) worth. Josh Hayes, Zoology, Miami of Ohio jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
rob@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Robert K Shull) (05/11/91)
In article <5244.282a6b42@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu writes: >But you've overlooked the most serious shortcoming of DeltaGraph: it's >a dog. We purchased it to do exactly what has been described here, and >it should have been called Beta-Graph, as far as we can tell. Constantly >quitting unexpectedly, out of memory, reverting to old data sets after >long hours of editing (grrrr....), only one data file can be open at a >time even under multifinder, odd behavior with colors (for example, axis What version of the software are you using? We've used DeltaGraph 1.5 on II's, IIx's, and IIsi's and have seen none of the problems you describe. No crashes, no (unexplainable) out of memory conditions, no problems with color. Things print just fine to our LaserWriters, DeskWriter, and PaintWriter. The only bug we've seen so far is that DG botches rotated text. Rotated text prints at 72 dpi regardless of the destination printer. Fix for this is to export as PICT and print in MacDraw II. And I agree, the inability to open more than one file is an extreme annoyance. As is the (apparent) inability to do multiple imports into the same page. BTW, we're running under 6.0.7 with a wide variety of INIT's. >Josh Hayes, Zoology, Miami of Ohio Robert -- Robert K. Shull rob@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu chinet!uokmax!rob
kchang@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Kenneth Chang) (05/11/91)
In article <1991May10.201456.13660@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu> rob@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Robert K Shull) writes: >In article <5244.282a6b42@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu> jahayes@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu writes: [problems with Deltagraph -- printing, slow, quitting unexpectedly] >What version of the software are you using? We've used DeltaGraph 1.5 on II's, >IIx's, and IIsi's and have seen none of the problems you describe. No crashes, >no (unexplainable) out of memory conditions, no problems with color. >Things print just fine to our LaserWriters, DeskWriter, and PaintWriter. >The only bug we've seen so far is that DG botches rotated text. Rotated text >prints at 72 dpi regardless of the destination printer. Fix for this is to >export as PICT and print in MacDraw II. And I agree, the inability to open >more than one file is an extreme annoyance. As is the (apparent) inability to >do multiple imports into the same page. BTW, we're running under 6.0.7 >with a wide variety of INIT's. How large are the data sets you are working with? Deltagraph's speed and reliability nosedive when you start trying to plot tens of thousands of points. The other problem with Deltagraph is that it uses an inefficient file format. It's not too hard to get files over a meg in size. -- Kenneth Chang | National Center for Supercomputing Applications kchang@ncsa.uiuc.edu | Consulting Office/(217)244-1144 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Everything's entertainment in America eventually" -- Tracy Ullman
sjhg9320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Global Village Idiot ) (05/11/91)
On data sets with 800-1000 points, I have not noticed any speed problems whatsoever, even in plots with two dependent variables. (On IIci, Multifinder, Cache Card w/SANE patched to always call 68882.) -----------------------------------------------------------------------