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From: przemek@liszt.helios.nd.edu (Przemek Klosowski)
Newsgroups: sci.physics,comp.graphics,sci.engineering
Subject: Plotting program
Summary: looking for recommendations
Keywords: plot, program
Message-ID: <1991Mar1.220154.29592@news.nd.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 91 22:01:54 GMT
Sender: news@news.nd.edu (USENET News System)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Notre Dame,  Notre Dame
Lines: 36

Hello!

I wonder if people out there could recommend a decent plotting program that:
 - will accept a simple file with data (but with flexible reading routine, 
   that does not insist on exactly two numbers per line) and make a 
   publication quality plot on laser printer.
 - has some way of previewing of the plot on PC or Tek terminal (for the 
   reasons of modifiability I think that I rather prefer a program that uses
   a "declarative" description of a plot in a file over a WYSIWYG.)
 - would let me add frills (arrows, point, curve, axis and plot titles) if I 
   need them later
 - generate output that is portable and can be included in a LaTeX document
   (in either EEPIC, PicTeX or Postscript or bitmap form)
 - be itself portable to different machines/operating systems (Unix and MSDOS, 
   really, but I think I need source code)

(for those that know GNUplot, it satisfies all conditions except the first:
the figures look coarse AND there is no notion of error bars)

The fourth requirement is important to me, as I was burned by using an
otherwise excellent package from Stanford Linear Accelerator Center,
called Top Drawer, running on VAX/VMS. I acquired a big collection of
data plots.  Then my institution dumped the VAX and switched to a UNIX
system, which is fine with me, except for the plots.

So the bottom line: what do people use to plot their data?

			przemek




--
			przemek klosowski (przemek@ndcvx.cc.nd.edu)
			Physics Dept
			University of Notre Dame IN 46556