Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!timothyg
From: timothyg@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Timothy Gallivan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Drawing, plotting, ...?
Message-ID: <1991May6.180756.21206@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 6 May 91 18:07:56 GMT
References: <1991May6.121144.4862@uni-paderborn.de> <1991May6.122808.3748@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: Nat'l Ctr for Supercomp App (NCSA) @ University of Illinois
Lines: 45
Originator: timothyg@harriett


In article <1991May6.122808.3748@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>, boyd@nu.cs.fsu.edu (Mickey Boyd) writes:
|> In article <1991May6.121144.4862@uni-paderborn.de>, marc@uni-paderborn.de (Marc Gumbold) writes:
|> >As I decided to give my poor old ST yet another chance to be 
|> >treated as a real, usable, reasonable, adult computer, I'm looking for 
|> >(possibly from the PD realm...):
|> >
|> >	(b) some plot program that could plot x-y (or better
|> >	x-y1-y2-...-yn) style data files and, if possible,
|> >	function graphs. Or, put it this way, is there a 
|> >	decent port of Gnuplot running on a 1 MB monochrome
|> >	ST available? (Think I read something like that somewhere...)

I have a the ST port of gnuplot, but the screen driver is not very good.
Also, it is command line oriented and produces mediocre printer
ouput, even though it supports postscript. I have tried several other
PD plotters, but they are generally disappointing.

	[stuff about Sci-Plot, Subcal, and Ultra-graph]

|> Sci Plot is geared toward making professional graph printouts.  They 
|> come out looking great, and it is very flexible in terms of data input, 
|> graph type, error bars, placement, text on the graph, etc.  

I have had Sci-Plot for a long time. It is great, but is basically
worthless to me for one reason. It cannot produce high quality
output files. Plots can be saved as DEGAS pictures, but that is the
best it can do. I need GEM metafile or postscript output.

|> Ultra-Graph is more of a screen oriented function plotter.  It is absolutely 
|> stunning on a color monitor (I remember many days of dinking with this 
|> one when I got it).  Also looks nice in high res.  It can do 2D stuff, but
|> it was really designed to show 3D plots.  You can move your point of          
|> perspective, enter your own functions, change colors, etc.   

Does this thing plot 3D DATA (not just functions)? Does it produce
resolution independent output? If so, I want it.

There is some commercial graphing software called FirstGraph which
produces GEM output files, but I have been unable to find the demo program.
I refuse to purchase it until I can try it out. Does anyone know where
I can get this demo?

Tim Gallivan
timothyg@ncsa.uiuc.edu