ARM Club 1/ARM_CLUB_CD.iso/contents/apps/maths/progs/multiplot/!MultiPlot_!help

Text File | 1992-03-19 | 9.4 KB | 293 lines

!MultiPlot, © Chris Johnson, 1991

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

THIS PROGRAM WAS COMPILED USING THE DABS PRESS ARCHIMEDES
BASIC COMPILER (ABC)

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The software referred to in these notes is NOT placed
into the  public domain, but remains the copyright of
the author, Chris Johnson. It should not be posted on
any bulletin boards or supplied as public domain
software. It is available free of charge to all
registered users of Graphdraw.


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What This Software Does

This fully RISC-OS compliant multitasking
application allows the plotting of up to five graphs on
the same set of axes. Suitable data files may be
produced using e.g. !GraphDraw, !FnPlotter or
!CurveFit. This application does not allow the direct
entry of data, and does no data processing. It simply
combines several graphs onto the same set of
scaled axes.

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Multiplot now fully supports Acorn's !Help application.
When the !Help window is open, information on
Multiplot's windows and icons is continuously displayed.

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Running the Application

As a fully RISC-OS compliant application it can be
started from within the desktop in all the normal
ways.

NB. The display of the graph uses outline fonts to
annotate the axes etc.. It is therefore necessary for
the operating system to have "seen" the !fonts
directory before the program is run. Otherwise an
error message may be generated. The default font
used is Trinity.Medium, since this comes on the
RISC-OS applications disc, and both old and new
version font managers can deal with it (the new
outline font manager will work with the old
bitmapped fonts). It is possible to change to a
different font, and to make a different font the default
if you wish.

Double clicking on the !MultiPlot icon in a directory
viewer will install its icon on the icon bar.

The application may also be started by double
clicking on any !MultiPlot data file in a directory
viewer. This will only work if the !MultiPlot
application has been 'seen' by the filer, so that the
filer knows to run !MultiPlot before loading the file. If
the application is started in this way, besides the
icon appearing on the icon bar, the icon will show
the number of data files loaded.


The Iconbar Menu

Clicking 'menu' on the iconbar icon will bring up a
menu with the following options.



Info
     A standard information window with version
number. This is the number that should be
quoted in any communication regarding the
application.

Plot graph
     This option will open a window showing a  graph of
the loaded data. The style of the  graph is the same as
that of the !GraphDraw  application. A submenu will
allow the plot to use semi-log or log-log axes. The
programs traps (I hope) attempts to take the log of zero
or a negative number.

Options...
     Selecting this brings up a dialogue box that
allows a range of options to be changed, and
these changes may be made permanent so
that they become the new defaults when the
application is subsequently started.



     The choices should be self explanatory. The
font name and size can be changed. To
change the font, simply click on the name
field, when a menu will open with all the
installed fonts shown, from which a choice can
be made. Clicking on either of the size icon
fields will place the caret ready to enter the
new size. The type of point symbol (size and
whether filled) used for the graph can be
changed by clicking on the appropriate
buttons. The changes will not come into
operation until the OK button is pressed. If the
cancel button (or the window close icon) is
pressed, the dialogue box is removed from the
screen, and the original defaults remain in
effect. The selection can be made the new
default by clicking on the save icon. (This
option is NOT available when the application
is running over econet). Note that the default
file is saved within the !MultiPlot application,
therefore, if the application is being run from a
floppy disc, the filer may request the disc
containing the !MultiPlot application to be
inserted in the disc drive.

Clear data
Selecting this option will irretrievably clear all
data currently loaded. The iconbar icon will
show 'no lines' below it after this operation.

Save Data
This will lead to a standard "save as" dialogue
box, allowing all the current data to be saved
in the one file. This is useful if you have
several lines loaded and wish to save the
complete set. Remember that MultiPlot data
files cannot be loaded into any other
applications, and once a composite data file
has been produced, there is no simple way to
extract the component parts again.

Quit
The method by which you quit the application.  All
windows belonging to the application will  be
closed, and its icon will be removed from  the
iconbar. Since there are no editing  facilities in
this application, it will simply quit. It  is up
to the user to ensure that any data which is to be
saved has  been saved before the quit operation is
invoked.

Graph Window Menus

Whenever a graph is being displayed, clicking
'menu' will lead to a further range of options. These
options are essentially the same as are offered in
the !GraphDraw application.




Legend
This opens a window which allows you to
enter text to label the graph axes, and a title
string for the graph. Clicking on display will
place the labels on the graph, while delete will
remove labels from the graph (the text
remains in memory and can be reinstated by
reselecting label and clicking on display).
Simply closing the menu will leave the state of
the labels as they were.



The labels are dragable icons and can thus be
dragged to anywhere on the graph if you do
not like the default positions. The same labels
will appear on any graph, with the previous
position being remembered. The y-axis label is plotted
horizontally or plotted vertically, reading downwards.
This is  something I am not too sure about as far as
the aesthetics of display are concerned. I have  not yet
worked out how to rotate outline font  text through 90
degrees so that it reads up the axis without writing a
great deal of extra code!

One way to produce such text if you have access
either to !DrawPlus or !FontFX is to produce the
graph with no y-axis label (just press return)
and produce a DrawFile of the graph. DrawPlus is
able to produce outline text reading in any
direction, so simply load the drawfile into
DrawPlus and add the y-axis label. With access to
FontFX and Draw, load the graph drawfile into
!Draw and then use !FontFX to produce the  rotated
y-axis annotation. Once this has been added to
the !Draw document, it can be rescaled and
dragged to a suitable position.

If data is saved after legends have been
entered, then the text is also saved, and is
reloaded when the data is reloaded.

Print Graph

Choosing this option gives a printout of the
complete graph via whichever RISC-OS  printer driver
application is installed. A printer  driver must be
installed, otherwise !MultiPlot  will complain. This
allows a much higher  quality hard copy to be obtained
compared to  a simple screen dump, up to the best
available  resolution of the printer used. The "print"
key can be used as a shortcut.

Make Drawfile

A standard 'save as' dialogue box will be
opened. The file icon may be dragged to a
directory viewer, or if the full filename path is
set up it is possible to click on OK. The file
saved is a Drawfile of the graph being
displayed. It is also permissible to drag the file
icon into a !draw window to add the graph to
an existing draw document, or drag the icon to
the !draw icon on the iconbar, when a new
draw window will be opened. These latter
operations make use of the wimp$scrap
protocol in the present version - direct memory
to memory transfer is to come! The production
of !Draw format files means that the graphs
can be loaded into !Draw or !DrawPlus for
enhancement, and can also be loaded into the
various DTP packages now available (it
certainly works for Acorn DTP, CC's
Impression II, and Beebug's Ovation
packages).

Layout
This leads to a dialogue window in which
various aspects of the way the graph is laid
out may be changed, e.g. whether the axis
pips are inside, outside or straddle the axis
lines, the size of the pips, whether the graph is
boxed in. The choices available are under
continuous review, and may be changed in
future releases.

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If you have any comments on this program, or would like to
suggest ways in which it could be improved then the author
can be contacted directly.

Chris Johnson
7 Lovedale Grove
Balerno
Edinburgh
EH14 7DR

If you have access to JANET then try

     [e-mail]

If you wish to enter into the 'shareware' concept in the
full  sense then registrations (>=£3) will be gratefully
received by the  author.

If, in any communication, you make specific reference to the
program code, then please

      (a) quote the version number and date

      (b) refer only to the program as issued.

      (c) supply as many details as possible about the
          problem, and indicate the hardware configuration of
          the machine being used.

PLEASE SEND A STAMPED AND SELF ADDRESSED ENVELOPE IF YOU
REQUIRE A REPLY.

Notwithstanding all the above I hope you find the program of
some use.



CafJ 19/3/92.