home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Fred Fish Collection 1.5
/
ffcollection-1-5-1992-11.iso
/
ff_disks
/
200-299
/
ff292.lzh
/
MultiPlot
/
Docs
/
Multiplot.doc
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1989-12-10
|
10KB
|
245 lines
MULTIPLOT XLN
This is program placed in the Public Domain for free use WITH THE
SPECIFIC EXCEPTION OF REDISTRIBUTION FOR PROFIT.
November 1989
Walter & Eliza Hall Institute,
c/o PostOffice, Royal Melbourne Hospital,
Parkville 3053. VICTORIA
This is the first release of Multiplot XLN. It is expected to
receive distribution via Fred Fish. If you notice any repeatable
bugs or have any suggestions for improvement of enhancement,
please send them to me at the address below.
This release includes the Plt: device. The inclusion of this program
does not in any way effect or imply distribution conditions.
The distribution conditions of the Plt: device are described in the file
Plt.doc.
HISTORY
Multiplot was originally written by Tim Mooney as a plotting
utility for use with mCAD, his freeware CAD program. It supported
a flexible input textfile format, many plotting options, and HPLG
plotter output. It was not an intuitive program, and its full
power was difficult to realise. It was also very limited in
output formats and had no support for printers.
Some of these problems were addressed in PLOT, an intuition
interface which created an environment from which Multiplot and a
collection on conversion files could be called. However the major
problem of a non-intuitive way of selecting plotting options
remained (the "get how to" window), and it was not possible to
print output from within the program.
Multiplot XLN resolves these problems.
SUMMARY
Multiplot XLN is a fully intuitive data plotting program. It
plots data points as (x,y) coordinates with or without error
bars. It can plot multiplot sets of data points using colour or
point size to represent the deferent sets. A set may be joined by
a line or plotted as discrete points. The input file for
multiplot is a simple textfile and my be created in the NotePad.
Output may be in any of the following formats: IntroCAD, Draw,
mCAD, IFF, HPLG. The graph can be printed to any workbench
printer by transparent use of the PLT: device.
REQUIREMENTS
Workbench 1.3 (or higher) and maths libraries, the PLT: device
(plt-handler in l: and the mountlist for plt added to the devs:
mountlist), at least 1Mb RAM. The files Multiplot, txt_2_icad and
plot2draw must be kept together in the same directory. Text on
screen currently uses Times.font sizes 14 and 24 point. If these
fonts are absent, the default font will be used.
INPUT FILE FORMAT
Multiplot accepts a simple ascii file for input of data. The data
must consist of columns of numbers. Text heading the file will be
ignored with the exception of lines beginning with:
*TITLE* Text will be used for a title.
*XLABEL* Text will be used for a label on X axis.
*YLABEL* Text will be used for a label on Y axis.
Blank lines or lines of text interrupting the columns of
numbers are interpreted as separating sets of data, and each set
will be plotted individually in, for example, a different colour
or point size.
See plotme.dat or eric for examples of input file format.
STARTING OUT
From the CLI: > multiplot [filename]
Type multiplot with or without the filename of the input data
file. If a '?' is used as an argument, a simple description of
usage is given.
From the Workbench: Double click on the Multiplot icon OR
Edit your input file in a simple editor (NotePad will do fine),
and save with an icon. You can then change the file's default
tool (INFO from the lefthand Workbench menu) to
Multiplot:Multiplot or whatever the file path is. Multiplot will
then be automatically invoked when the file is double clicked. An
alternative to this is to not change the file's default tool, but
to click on the file to highlight it hold the shift key down, and
then double click on the Multiplot icon. It doesn't matter if you
get them around the wrong way.
THE DATA SELECTION WINDOW
After being started, Multiplot tries to work out whether it is on
a PAL or NTSC machine, and opens a screen of the appropriate
size. The next thing you see is the DATA SELECTION WINDOW. If you
started Multiplot by telling it what file you wanted to plot, the
file's name will be in a little box. Sometimes if the name is
very long, the box is empty. Don't worry, Multiplot still knows
what you want. If you started Multiplot without telling it what
file you want, the default file name will appear in the box. The
PATH button will call up a file requester to help with browsing
directory trees looking for wanted data files. Beneath the file
selection box are three other boxes to indicate what column the
X, Y and Error values are in. A '0' indicates values are absent.
For example if the Error box has a '0', no error bars will be
plotted. If the X box has a '0', unit increases in the X values
will be assumed. When satisfied with the file and column
specification, hit the return key or click on the Continue=>
arrow.
THE HOW TO PLOT WINDOW
The HOW TO PLOT window is the first level of choosing plot
options. In this window you may turn the error bars on (if
available) or off, turn a cross grid on of off, and choose the
number of tic marks along the X and Y axes. You can also choose
to have the data plotted in either default points (all sets
plotted as points, each in a different colour) or lines. If you
wish to specify plotting options for each data set individually,
click off the default plot. Hit the Continue=> button when happy
with you selections. If a default plot was chosen, you will pass
straight to the screen plot. If not the next window is the CUSTOM
PLOT window.
THE CUSTOM PLOT WINDOW
This is the next level in choosing plot options. For each data
set for plotting, this window will appear to allow you to select
plot colours, whether line or point, and if point, point size.
For example, in the example plot supplied, the first four data
sets are raw experimental results. The next four data sets are
the curve fits provided by another program. In this case, it is
appropriate to plot the first four data sets as points with errorbars, with each data set in a different colour. This is achieved
by leaving the DEFAULT selector ON, an clicking the LINE/POINT
selector to point. Click on the Continue=> button four times to
accept point plots with cycling colours. For the fifth data set,
change the default selector to OFF, choose colour '8' (grey) and
change the LINE/POINT selector to LINE. Accept this choice for
the remaining four data sets by clicking on the Continue=> button
four times. The plot will now be rendered on the screen.
THE PLOT WINDOW
The PLOT window fills the entire high resolution screen and
contains a hand crafted menu for your computing pleasure. The
menus available are PROJECT which relates to the loading, saving
and printing or plots, EDIT which allows modification of the
plot, resizing, shifting and zoom, and the OPTIONS menu which
changes the boarder colour, turns the axes, grid and cross hair
on or off and returns you to the HOW TO PLOT window. The major
menu items are described below.
NEW
Returns you to the DATA SELECTION window for loading a new file.
You will NOT be prompted by a requester asking if you really
REALLY want to restart. This is because 1) You almost certainly
do. and 2) You don't actually loose very much even if you didn't.
SAVE
Plots may be saved in any of the following formats: IFF (loads
into DPaint), Draw (loads into Draw2000 etc), IntroCAD (an
excellent CAD program), mCAD (a PD CAD program), and HPLG plotter
language. Please note the following restrictions: Currently Draw,
IntroCAD, and mCAD saves do not include the numbers or labels on axes.
You will need to jot these down when saving in these formats. A
Draw save does not include information for the colours. Data is
saved in a single colour. Draw saves require the program
Plot2Draw to be in the same directory as Multiplot. IntroCAD
saves require the program Txt_2_Icad to be in the same directory
as Multiplot. Hopefully, some of these restrictions will be
addressed in later releases of Multiplot.
Please Note:
# Neither Professional Page nor PageStream handle Draw files with large
dimensions very well. If your dimensions are greater than 200 units,
these programs often scramble the data. Rescale your data to keep
within these limits if you wish to import to either of these
programs.
PRINT
Printing is achieved via the transparent use of the PLT: device.
The plt-handler must be in your l: directory, and the PLT:
mountlist must be added to your DEVS:mountlist. You do not need
to mount the device. Multiplot will mount PLT: automatically if
it is not already mounted. Currently printed copy does not include
labels on the axes, but does include values.
QUIT
Quit does the obvious, with the same restrictions noted in the
section on NEW.
ZOOM
Allows closeup views of areas of the data. Overzealous use results
in an interesting red and black logo at the top of the screen.
It is safe if you are sensible.
LOCKS
Allows either the X or Y dimension to be frozen while the other
is zoomed or rescaled. very useful when used in conjunction with
the other items in this menu (Zoom, Slide, FullPlot).
OPTIONS
Best left to exploration.
THE FUTURE
Probable enhancements to come are: coloured colour selecter, example
point sizes in the point selecter, user definable on screen fonts,
printed and saved output of screen text, colour for Draw saves and
bar graphs. Suggestions welcomed.
CONCLUSION
Multiplot is the first intuitive Data plotting program for the
Amiga. It allows extremely rapid visualisation of experimental
data with a wide selection of output formats. It does a simple
job, but does it well. If you have suggestions, questions, bug
finds or are just feeling lonely (!), please write:
Dr Alan G Baxter,
Walter & Eliza Hall Institute,
c/o Post Office, Royal Melbourne Hospital,
Parkville 3053,
AUSTRALIA
Thanks to Tim Mooney for the great code, and Graeme Riddle for
testing.