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From: beck@bongo.cs.cornell.edu (Micah Beck)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: looking for anything -> PiCTeX
Keywords: PiCTeX
Message-ID: <51602@cornell.UUCP>
Date: 5 Feb 91 14:55:50 GMT
References: <11793@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Sender: nobody@cornell.UUCP
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept. Ithaca NY
Lines: 31

jdm5548@diamond.tamu.edu (James Darrell McCauley) writes:

>I'm looking for ways to make this work without learning PiCTeX - I'm
>looking for filters to convert any kind of graphic to PiCTeX code.

>I'm familiar with (x)fig and the corresponding filter fig2dev, but
>xfig is a little cumbersome to use.  If anyone has any suggestions
>concerning filters or alternative drawing programs, I'd like to hear 
>them.  If response is good, I'll summarize to comp.text.tex.

There are two programs which translate widely used graphics languages
into Fig code.  Fig2dev can then be used to convert this code to PiCTeX.
Thus, (X)Fig is not a necessary tool for using Fig code and fig2dev.
If fact, the main goal of TransFig (of which fig2dev is one part) is to
make Fig code a portable graphics representation in its own right.

The two program (which I know of) are:

	- pic2fig,  which converts the PIC graphics language to Fig code, and
	- plot2fig, which converts the Unix plot(5) format into Fig code.

There are various graphics programs which produce PIC or plot(5) output.
In the gnuplot numerical plotting programs produce Fig code directly.  There
may be others by now.

TransFig and Fig (not XFig) are available for anonymous FTP from 
svax.cs.cornell.edu in directory ~ftp/pub/fig.

Micah Beck
Dept. of Computer Science
Cornell University