# $Id: README,v 1.13 1999/02/27 04:41:50 lance Exp $
******* LanceMan's QuickPlot ** README ********************
#################BUILD INSTRUCTIONS############################
On LINUX, and IRIX no edits needed for 'build'.
On HP-UX edit 'Makefile' for 'build', uncomment the two lines
in 'Makefile'.
I haven't tried it on SUN's (Solaris), but someone tells me that
it will build if you uncomment one line in 'Makefile'.
Please send me an e-mail if you try it on a SUN.
It uses the standard C, X11, Xt, Xaw, Xpm and math (m) libraries,
but on suns you have to link more X libraries then that.
To build:
edit: 'Makefile' (uncomment 0, 1 or 2 lines)
make
That's it!
To test it (in the build directory) without installing:
./test_data | ./quickplot
to see options:
./quickplot --help
or:
man -M ./man quickplot
################INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS##########################
To install:
Edit the INSTALL_DIR macro in the file "Makefile"
then 'make install'.
This will install the files:
bin/quickplot bin/test_data man/man1/quickplot.1
man/man1/test_data.1 html/quickplot.1.man.html
and html/test_data.1.man.html
in INSTALL_DIR/.
That's it!
##################################################################
Send me (lance) an e-mail if you like
quickplot@kachinatech.com
##################################################################
############### quickplot Hype ##################################
The quickplot home page is at: http://www.kachinatech.com/~quickplot/
See alot of related stuff at: http://SAL.KachinaTech.COM/D/1/
Why did I write this program?
I needed a plotter that I could quickly look at very large data sets
with. I mean about 1 million plus points plotted. But you say
"How can you look at a million data points on a screen that
has only 1.3 million pixels." I say, "Easy, just swim through the
data using quick zooming." It works fine for small data sets too.
I call it quickplot. Engineers and scientists will like it. It's yet
another 2-D plotter. It's fast and easier to use than most. I know it
will become a standard if people find out about it. It's a low feature
plotter that lets you "swim through" your data quickly. I liken it to
"a zooming pager for data". It's not too much like gnuplot. I use
gnuplot too, and gnuplot can't swim through your data quickly like
this. It does one job very well. It gives you a quick look at all your
data, even when you don't have a clue of what your data looks like.
What about GNUPLOT?
GNUPLOT is great. I hear there is a GUI interface for it now
(http://www2.msstate.edu/~dmi1/xgfe/xgfe.html).
GNUPLOT is a full featured plotter.
Quickplot is not a full feature plotter.
After the plot is generated with GNUPLOT you can no longer
interact with it. Quickplot plot windows are interactive.
GNUPLOT plot windows are not interactive.
In general GNUPLOT is a better plotter than Quickplot.
But, if you don't have a clue what your data looks like, Quickplot
can show you it more quickly .....
In most cases just typing 'quickplot FILENAME' will plot your data.
With GNUPLOT you need to do a little more work to plot your data.
You could build a filter to do the work, but your plots would
still not "show you" all the data in a dense data set.
If you have 50 plus 2-D plots to look at and compare, Quickplot
can show you it quickly all on one plot or not.
features quickplot gnuplot most_other_plotters
-------- --------- ------- -------------------
zooming yes! no some do
shell pipe in yes! not directly no
maximum # plots no limit ?? ??
command_options yes plot and X Just X ??
auto_scale yes yes yes
PS output no yes! yes
lots_of_stuff no yes yes
################# quickplot TO DO LIST #####################
Add plot editing for function plot mode
Add Max and Min values to value window
Add pipe to stdout or files with the edit mode
Add more colors for multi-plots > 12, more then a crapy rainbow
Add X-resource color setting
Add autoconfigure (I don't think it's needed yet) KISS (keep it simple stupid)
Make a quickplot Xwindow widget (Qt ?) (tk, python ?)
this would be a pretty big widget
#############################################################
*******************************************
* This is GNU CopyLefted (GNU GPL)
* See file: 'COPYING' for more information
*******************************************
##################### extra information ####################
--shared library dependencies for quickplot on linux (redhat 5.2)
for quickplot version: 0.4.0
root@thor# ldd /usr/local/bin/quickplot
libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x40005000)
libXaw.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw.so.6 (0x4009c000)
libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x400d0000)
libXpm.so.4 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXpm.so.4 (0x40113000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x40122000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4013b000)
libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6 (0x401df000)
libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x401ef000)
libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x401f7000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x4020b000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x00000000)
#########################################################
--Lance Arsenault
