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Mac Magazin/MacEasy 21
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Mac Magazin and MacEasy Magazine CD - Issue 21.iso
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Wissenschaft & Technik
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gist12vr1.ppc folder
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gist-1.2vr1-README
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1996-02-29
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Introduction
------------
Gist is a program that displays frames in binary CGM files written by
yorick and other applications (e.g. ATC GKS, IDL). gist is
particularly useful for making PICT files from a CGM file written by
a Unix version of yorick.
Yorick is a tool for analyzing numerical data. It has an interpreter
that uses a C-like language and can operate on entire arrays without
any need for do loops over the array indices. Yorick has a file I/O
package with the ability to conveniently read text files with
columns of numbers. The file I/O package can easily be trained to
read a wide variety of binary and text files, if the formatting
rules for the file are known. Yorick has a 2D graphics package that
includes polylines, contour plots, cell arrays, and filled mesh
plots. The new 3D graphics package provides surface plots, slicing
planes, and iso-surfaces.
The Macintosh version of Gist was created by Steve Langer
(shl@icf.llnl.gov) from the Unix version written by Dave Munro.
This file contains some short notes about the Macintosh version.
Usage of the Mac version is largely self-explanatory. If you want to
find out about more details, please consult the documentation
supplied with the Unix version.
Macintosh versions of Yorick and Gist are labeled by the version
number of the corresponding Unix release followed by the Mac version.
For example, version 1.2v1 means the first version based on Unix
release 1.2.
Bug fixes and New Features in release 1.2vr1
--------------------------------------------
There are now both 68000 and Power PC versions of gist.
Previous versions of macgist did not correctly display polygons
with more than 98 vertices. The new limit should be large enough
that you will never encounter it.
If you double-click on a cgm file created by yorick, gist will be
launched. At this time, gist does not manage to open the cgm file,
but that should be fixed soon.
Usage Notes
-----------
Gist reads binary CGM files and displays the plots on the screen.
Gist can save any desired combination of plots from the CGM file
in another CGM file or in a PostScript file. The Mac version of
gist can also save the currently displayed frame in a PICT file.
CGM stands for "Computer Graphics Metafile". The CGM standard was
originally developed for mainframe computer graphics, but it is now
used on computers of all sizes, and even is used by some mainstream
programs like Freelance Graphics by Lotus Development. One of the
unfortunate features of the CGM standard is that it provides many
options for how to encode a file. gist does not attempt to read all
CGM files. gist can read the CGM files written by yorick without any
loss of information. The preferences dialog in the edit menu provides
an option to read cgm files made by the ATC GKS package, and this works
reasonably for the files we make using ATC. Gist may work with other
types of binary cgm files, so go ahead and try it and see what happens.
The main use for macgist is making PICT files from a CGM file written by
yorick. A specific case where it would be extremely useful is when
you have run a complex calculation with yorick on a Unix workstation
and need to include the results in report written on a Macintosh.
An open dialog in gist shows files that have type CGMF or files whose
name ends in ".cgm". Gist does not show files with two or more "dots"
in their names, even if the name ends in ".cgm". This is on the list to
be fixed someday.
If a frame in your file seems to be drawn twice every time you move to
it, it is probably because a new color table is loaded as part of that
frame. At some point I would like to modify macgist so that this redraw
does not happen, but you will have to accept it for now.
Although a check box in the preferences dialog suggests that you can
turn on command-period interrupts, this version of macgist does not
actually support them.
The save window size button in the preferences dialog does not work due
to problems with the FaceIt library. I hope to fix this in a future
version.
Getting Gist
------------
Gist is distributed in two self-extracting archive files. There is a
version that runs on any 68000 based Mac and a Power Mac version.
Each version of gist checks for the Mac hardware and software it
requires and aborts if it is not found (it is possible that detection
of old 68000 Macs does not work).
If you have a copy of yorick, you may drag the gist application into
the yorick folder and throw out the rest of the gist folder.
If you can do so, download the "sea" file in MacBinary mode with your
ftp program. If the ftp site you are using only has the "hqx"
version, download it and use a program like UnStuffIt to decode the
BinHex file. Once you have the "sea" file, double-click on it and it
will automatically split itself apart into the constituent files. If
you install both yorick and gist, you can drag the gist application
into the yorick folder and throw away the gist sub-folder in the main
gist folder.