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From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Scientific graphing packages
Message-ID: <1989Dec9.013057.1976@phri.nyu.edu>
Date: 9 Dec 89 01:30:57 GMT
References: <1354@merlin.bhpmrl.oz> <7413@cbnewsm.ATT.COM>
Sender: news@phri.nyu.edu (News System)
Reply-To: roy@alanine.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Institute, NYC
Lines: 36


	Isn't it amazing how users always want something the available
programs can't do?  The other day, somebody wanted to make a graph where the
y axis was broken, with a change of scale, like so:

 30 |   X
    |
 20 |     X
    |
 10 |       X
    /
    /
  3 |         X
    |
  2 |                 X
    |
  1 |                                     X
    |
    +------------------------------------------------
       1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10

	No, they didn't want a log-y plot, nor did they want to plot the top
and bottom parts of the graph in two pieces like a Cricket Graph double-y
plot.  What they wanted was a split y axis with a change of scale.  Anybody
know of any programs which can deal with that?

	And, while I'm on the subject, I once had somebody who wanted to
make a plot where the y values increased from the top to the bottom of the
graph (i.e. an "inverted" y axis).  Seems that is the conventional way to
make the kind of graph he was makeing.  Cricket Graph, however, does some
"error checking" and insists that Ymax > Ymin.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
"My karma ran over my dogma"