Grace list of changes
5.0.2
New functionality
* [ES] graphs and sets are allocated dynamically; -maxgraph, -maxsets and
-graphsets removed
* [ES] XY chart is back
* [ES] XYZ set type is back
! [ES] new chart set presentations: stacked line and scatter
! [ES] new options for charts (different bar border/fill colors and
patterns etc)
! [ES] inter-bar gap for bar charts is adjustable (rep. #198)
! [ES] new set type: BarDY (bar charts with error bars)
* [ES] precision can be used for XYZ sets (rep. #519)
* [ES] new set auto-coloring is back
* [ES] added 16 new patterns
* [ES] added a few more line styles (rep. #305)
! [ES] legends can be displayed in reverse order (rep. #205)
* [ES] legends are drawn by default
* [ES] enhanced backward compatibility with Xmgr
* [ES] in free mode, auto-re-scale all the plot objects (imitating Xmgr)
(rep. #537)
! [ES] color map stuff (rep. #512)
! [AM] auto-scaling with range restrictions
* [LM] added internals for RT (real time) input monitoring
! [LM] grace_np library now uses anonymous instead of named pipes
! [ES] write format is used for all dataset types
! [ES] FP line widths (rep. #483)
! [ES] locale, if available and set, is used for numeric labels
* [ES] in case of crash, Grace tries to save the project anyway
! [ES] added an option to fill (or not to) the page background
* [ES] Grace honors $GRACE_PRINT_CMD environment variable (rep. #522)
* [ES] PS and PDF drivers optimized for speed and file size
* [ES] added color/gray-scale and bbox:tight/page options to the EPS driver
* [ES] added adjustable printer page offsets to the PS driver
* [ES] warning issued on truncated printout (if display and hard-copy
device aspect ratio don't coincide, for example)
Interface
! [ES] menu shuffles
! [ES] new graph selectors - with many operations available from the popup
menu (right mouse button)
! [ES] new set selectors - with many operations available from the popup
menu (right mouse button). Set selectors in the Data/* popups are
of the old style yet
* [ES] pattern selectors have pattern bitmaps displayed
* [ES] line style selectors have dash bitmaps displayed
* [ES] graph number for ops is automatically graph that has focus
(rep. #104)
! [ES] (approximate) number of tick divisions for auto-ticking is set in
"Axis properties" now instead of "Autoscale"
! [ES] a simplistic (by now) fonttool added
* [ES] removed all set pick operations
! [ES] "Set appearance/Edit/*" now act on selected sets only
* [HS] it's possible to refer to the index of blockdata as column 0
via command line (rep. #464)
* [ES] removed -xy, -xydy etc command line flags; use -(set)type instead
* [ES] -source stdin removed
! [ES] "-" and "stdin/stdout" can be used anywhere (rep. #486)
* [ES] Block data window reworked
! [ES] canvas events redone
* [ES] immediate feedback for drawing object reposition/editing is
back (rep. #532)
! [ES] Activate/Edit/Create/Reactivate Set menu confusion eliminated
(rep. #136)
* [ES] print popup fixes
! [ES] in the X11 driver, put dots every 0.1 viewport (visible only
if the page bg is not filled)
! [ES] <Ctrl+E> from text inputs fires up font tool
* [ES] xwindow title has "Grace: " prefix prepended and, if project is
modified, "(modified)" suffix
! [ES] removed "Clear all" and added "New" instead
! [ES] removed "Verify Pick sets operations" option, added "Don't
ask questions" (same as -noask)
! [LM] added -dpipe command line switch for monitoring an already open
file descriptor
* [ES] removed -symcolorbug command line option
* [ES] removed -dc/-nodc, -redraw/-noredraw, -GXxor/-GXinvert command
line options
* [ES] max error count upon reading in reduced from 50 to 5
Documentation/Info
* [ES] old HTML docs removed; a draft version of User's Guide added
* [EV] Tutorials prepared. It's a recommended reading not only for newbies,
especially taking into account the rudimentary state of the User's
Guide
* [AM] -version additions
Parser
* [ES] device commands (rep. #490)
! [ES] VXMAX and VYMAX - max viewport values of the current device
! [ES] TRUE/FALSE and ON/OFF are interchangeable
! [ES] NEW - start new project from scratch using default template;
NEW FROM "filename" - start new project from scratch using filename
template
! [ES] MAP COLOR color_id TO (R, G, B), "colorname"
(0 <= R, G, B < 256)
! [ES] S$ - currently processed (in parser) SETNUM
! [ES] S_ - recently assigned SETNUM (e.g., after a data have been read in)
! [ES] SETNUM.ID - id of the set (i.e., S5.ID is 5)
! [ES] G$, G_ and GRAPHNO.ID - same as above, but for graphs
Defaults
* [ES] toolbar X resources
! [ES] use IsoLatin1 encoding if Default.enc is not found
* [ES] gracerc magic path
! [ES] gracerc re-read upon SIGHUP
* [ES] templates (rep. #520)
Portability
* [LM] grace_np library now compiles and works correctly on OS/2 and Win32
(in addition to all Unices, of course). There is an unresolved
problem with VMS, though
* [ES] added configuration for use of lcc as compiler
* [JH] VMS updates
* [AM] OS/2 updates
* [ES] grconvert works on Win32
* [ES] Win32 port should compile out of the box
Bug fixes
* [ES] configure issued wrong messages
* [ES] drawing objects might not be drawn sometimes
* [ES] fixed patterns #7, #14 and #15
* [ES] fixed rounding errors in clipping routines (in particular, rep. #476
and #504)
* [EV] a feature extraction bug fixed
* [ES] view/world coords in string edit (rep. #469)
* [LM] input data line length restriction removed (rep. #260, #357,
#443)
* [ES] npipe "buffer overflow" fixed
* [ES] npipe load bug fixed
* [LM] linear regression on a two-point set was performed wrongly
* [ES] spreadsheet fixes and clean-ups (rep. #203, #259, #409)
* [ES] auto-scale fixes (rep. #510)
* [LM] configure fixes
* [LM] updated several explanation strings on example files with the new
GUI layout
* [LM] the correct stack depth was displayed only after cycling
* [ES] regions and graph fixed points not drawn in hardcopy output anymore
* [ES] if no set has a legend string defined, the empty legend box is not
drawn (even when legends are enabled)
* [ES] Disk/Pipe selector was broken (rep. #454)
* [ES] Set appearance/Data/Load comments didn't update GUI settings
for the currently selected set (rep. #474)
* [ES] ignore non-printable characters in formulae (rep. #241)
* [ES] working dir not initialized (rep. #470)
* [ES] `make tests' failed if ran before `make install' (rep. #491)
* [ES] incorrect postscript output of bar charts fixed (rep. #341, #410)
* [ES] fixed crash if applying axis settings to all graphs (rep. #503)
* [ES] warning popup on exit sometimes appeared even after no changes
have been made (rep. #274)
* [ES] auto-scale didn't work if specified from the command line together
with some other arguments (rep. #385, #441)
* [ES] File/Write/Sets didn't work for multiple set selection (rep. #394)
* [ES] strange font size decrement (rep. #242)
* [ES] crashes on SGI when accents are used in the legends (rep. #268)
* [ES] Strings & Things : Default size is zero on HP (rep. #288)
* [ES] sometimes in plots with multiple graphs, one couldn't get the x axis
tick marks or labels to be displayed on any of the graphs except for
graph 0 (rep. #339)
* [LM] in applications linked against grace_np, a call to system() or
like functions would abort execution (rep. #382)
* [ES] Core dump in SetSelectedSet if optimized (rep. #366)
* [ES] misc other bug fixes
Misc
* [ES] memory consumption reduced (typically, 0.5 MB less than that
of 5.0.1 and about same as of Xmgr-4.1.2)
* [ES] removed "Coalesce sets" (will be back in 5.0.3)
* [ES] no input date/time formats (a smart input data filter is planned
for 5.0.3). Please use Julian dates for a time being
5.0.1
New functionality
! [ES] added FORMAT_SCIENTIFIC, FORMAT_ENGINEERING
! [ES] polar plots (a work in progress - far from being completed, but
definitely better than nothing :))
! [ES] added tunable offsets for tick labels (in particular, rep. #467)
! [ES] added option of placing axis ticks at rounded positions (rep. #124)
* [HS2] implemented axis label placement op (normal/opposite side)
(rep. #463)
* [HS2] changed tick and axis label offsets from (x,y) to
(parallel/perpendicular)
* [HS2] introduced tick label placement auto/spec (similar to axis label)
! [ES] fill rules for sets: winding/even-odd; not honored by raster formats
! [ES] smart colormap management: -install/-noinstall flags force a given
behavior; default is to switch to the private colormap automatically
as needed
! [ES] -rvideo now acts on all devices; XMgrace.reverseVideo removed from
the list of X resources
! [ES] selecting devices by names instead of numbers; "-device" command
line argument renamed to "-hdevice"; GR_HDEV not used anymore
! [ES] zero axes are back. Now, both "primary" and alternative axes can be
"zero" ones
! [ES] PDF device options added: binary/ASCII output; misc fixes
! [ES] GIF device options added: transparent and interlaced output
! [ES] PS device options added: grayscale/color; Level2 toggle is back (in
fact, nobody of developers has a Level 1 printer to really check it)
* [ES] fixed bug when text strings might be typed wrong sometimes in the PS
output
* [ES] all drivers slightly rewritten
! [ES] added PNM (PBM/PGM/PPM) device (both ASCII and "rawbits" outputs)
! [ES] Courier font family added
* [ES] added \f, \h, \v, \z, \m, \M and \d string controls. Load typeset.agr
in the "examples" dir to get an idea
! [ES] in the batch language, in any statement with FONT NUMBER, the
font selection can be done by fontname instead of the number:
FONT "fontname"
! [ES] Grace can now use any number of user-defined fonts, both in addition
and as a replacement for bundled ones (rep. #26)
Documentation/Info
* [HS] added a text (http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/y2k.html)
on the Year 2000 problem (rep. #342)
* [HS2] new extended FAQ written
* [AM] version string includes GUI toolkit (Motif/Lesstif/None)
* [AM] help screen updated
* [ES] font docs (doc/fonts.html) updated
Portability
* [ES] configure should now be smarter about finding Motif (rep. #416)
* [ES] added configuration file for Interix (aka OpenNT) (rep. #437)
* [ES] SunOS4 build fixes
* [AM] OS/2 updates
Bug fixes
* [AM] "Read/Block data" crash fixed (rep. #445)
* [ES] Zooming now zooms exactly to the window specified by mouse (rep. #5)
* [ES] "AutoT" doesn't alter graph min/max values (rep. #165)
* [ES] killing sets in polar plots with parameters preserved caused crash
(rep. #125)
* [HS2] ellipses might be sometimes drawn incorrectly in X11
* [ES] a memory leak in "Edit String" fixed
* [HS] leap year function corrected
* [ES] XYString sets were not saved (rep. #452)
* [ES] Disk/Pipe selector was broken (rep. #455)
* [AM] fixed broken axis scaling when set min/max was +/- Inf
* [EV] stack manipulation fixed (#417)
* [AM] "-version" now outputs to stdout instead of stderr
* [ES] misc small fixes
5.0.0 (since Xmgr-4.1.2):
New functionality
* [ES] T1 fonts are used for all devices using the T1lib library of Rainer
Menzner. There should be no discrepancies anymore between characters
displayed and printed (rep. #16)
* [ES] routines of drawing layer rewritten from the scratch; Grace is now
almost WYSIWYG, except patterns (rep. #184)
* [EV] generic I/O filtering implemented (including rep. #240); see docs
for details
! [ES] reciprocal axis scale implemented (rep. #33)
* [EV] system-wide gracerc ($GRACE_HOME/gracerc) will be read at startup
time, if exists
! [ES] overlined strings are possible (\o \O) (rep. #176). Doesn't work with
device fonts yet
! [MM] extensions to regions including horizontal-inside, horizontal-outside,
vertical-inside and vertical-outside
! [MM] Grace will use the FFTW library for Fourier transform if present on
the system; see README.FFTW
* [MM] negative indices in "Drop points" allowed (counting from the end of
a set)
* [EV] added a new feature to be extracted - the integral of each set
! [ES] "unit" and "const" added to the possible proctype's for modules.
DEG (below) is an example what "unit" can be used for
! [ES] DEG and RAD are now meaningful. E.g., expressions like sin(90 deg)
and sin(pi/2 rad) both are legitimate (and equivalent!) ("rad" can be
omitted - it's there just for the sake of completeness)
* [ES] metafile driver (not in final state)
* [ES] PDF driver using the PDFlib of Thomas Merz; see README.PDF
* [ES] GIF/GD driver using the GD library of Thomas Boutell (rep. #14); see
README.GIF
* [ES] logarithmic scales can have any base (rep. #370)
* [ES] patterns and colors can be used simultaneously (rep. #291)
* [ES] power tick label format changed to work in scientific format
(rep. #361)
* [ES] \B in composite strings will reset the font to the string's initial
font (rep. #388)
* [ES] PS/EPS driver rewritten from the scratch
* [ES] X11 driver heavily rewritten
Interface
! [ES] removed "Plot/World scaling" popup
! [ES] re-designed axis props GUI popup (in particular, rep. #63, #313)
* [EV] point ops popup fixes
! [ES] graph appearance props GUI popup
! [ES] removed "Viewport", "Frame", "Titles" and "Legends" popups.
! [ES] removed "Error bars" and "Edit legends" popups.
! [ES] re-designed set appearance props GUI popup (rep. #311, #369 should be
fixed)
* [EV] added expression evaluation to text input fields in all widgets
* [EV] error window changed - only 1 window, not 1 window per error
! [EV] regression fits can be applied to specified interval and results are
printed out in readable form
* [EV] scrolled windows for explicitly requested expressions
* [EV] canvas hotkeys added
! [ES] re-designed print setup GUI popup (problems in rep. #372, #412
should be fixed)
* [ES] changing page size is possible for any device separately; the units
can be "pix"els, "cm" or "in" (rep. #108, #211, #216, #405)
Project files
* [EV] background color saved
* [MM] all regions, whether active or not, are saved to the file, so
temporarily inactive regions don't get lost
* [ES] page size is saved (rep. #312)
Parser
* [ES] cleaned grammar parser; instead of 350 shift/reduce and 231
reduce/reduce conflicts - > 61 & 0 respectively
* [ES] MAX() and MIN() renamed to MAXOF() and MINOF()
! [ES] removed DX, DY, IMAGE
! [ES] removed GRAPHNO *BAR SIZE NUMBER
! [ES] removed SETNUM = SETNUM etc
! [ES] removed CMAP, STATUS, STATUSBAR, TOOLBAR, LOCATORBAR, LOCATOR
Defaults
! [ES] default page layout changed from free to fixed
* [ES] \+ increases font size sqrt(sqrt(2)) times; \- respectively,
decreases. Sub/superscripts are 1/sqrt(2) of the preceeding font size
Portability
* [AM] implemented dynamic modules for OS/2
* [EV] popen() for VMS
* [JH/RN] VMS fixes
* [AM] OS/2 updates
Misc
! [ES] removed (broke) xwd image loading
! [ES] removed all app-defaults not specific to GUI
! [ES] \x and \b control sequences removed
Bug fixes
* [ES] "-mono" command line flag now works
* [EV] "-wd" command line flag fixed
* [EV] trying to create a new set preceded with soft kill of all sets
caused crash (rep. #367)
* [MM] FFT fixes
* [MM] when regions were read in from a saved file, they ended up linked
to all graphs
* [MM] in saved projects, REGNUM TRUE was used instead of REGNUM ON
* [EV] several sets can be linked to the same file as in xny data (rep. #269)
* [ES] crash on mono X servers fixed (rep. #285)
* [ES] canvas refresh (rep. #217, #271 #317, #333, #375)
* [ES] axis labels were not displayed if `display tick marks' wasn't
selected (rep. #3)
* [ES] coordinates of legend frame now corresponds to the left upper corner
of the frame (rep. #31)
* [ES] ticklabel format was reset by autoscale (rep. #119, #144)
* [ES] bounding box of EPS was calculated only approximately (rep. #123,
#145)
* [ES] legend frame didn't account for sub/superscripts (rep. #189)
* [ES] extraneous logarithmic tick marks were drawn in some cases (rep. #193)
* [ES] accentuated titles weren't centered correctly (rep. #195)
* [ES] switch to log scale with an axis containing zero might cause
error messages infinitely looped (rep. #210)
* [ES] filling of legend frame didn't work unless one turned the frame on
(rep. #215)
* [ES] the axes tick marks were behind set curves (rep. #224)
* [ES] popup positioning left up to WM for all windows (rep. #273)
* [ES] if graph contained too many ticks, autoscale was applied instead
of tick position recalculation (rep. #275)
* [EV] in "Point ops", 'Delete' ignored set number (rep. #293)
* [ES] once activated, legends fill frame couldn't be switched off
from within GUI (rep. #326)
* [CM] adding legends to plots with number of data sets exceeding the
default maximum caused a crash (rep. #344)
* [ES] arranging or rearranging graphs by means of the "arrange" dialog reset
previously set tick properties to defaults (rep. #356)
* [ES] user tick labels w/subscripts did not show up in PS output (rep. #383)
* [ES] FFT command didn't work correctly in parser (rep. #398)
* [HS] command line parsing was wrong in several places (rep. #400)
* [ES] misc. small fixes (including rep. #289, #406, #287)
Legend:
[EV] - Ed Vigmond <vigmonde@IGB.UMontreal.CA>
[RN] - Rolf Niepraschk <niepraschk@ChbRB.berlin.ptb.de>
[HS] - Henrik Seidel <seidel@mpimg-berlin-dahlem.mpg.de>
[JH] - John Hasstedt <John.Hasstedt@sunysb.edu>
[AM] - Alexander Mai <st002279@hrzpub.tu-darmstadt.de>
[CM] - Charles Myers <myers@oicinc.com>
[MM] - Marcus H. Mendenhall <marcus.h.mendenhall@vanderbilt.edu>
[HS2] - Heiko R. Selber <selber@fhi-berlin.mpg.de>
[LM] - Luc Maisonobe
[ES] - Evgeny Stambulchik <fnevgeny@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il>
"!" means no documentation provided (yet)