Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!pucc!BVAUGHAN
From: BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Barbara Vaughan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Graphing Software
Message-ID: <8086@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 26 Apr 89 16:22:00 GMT
References: <1262@optilink.UUCP>
Reply-To: BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 35
Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article

In article <1262@optilink.UUCP>, cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:

>I have a need to be able to plot graphs of data.  (Text and number, in
>pairs -- real simple -- no fancy regression analysis, no trend lines --
>real simple).  I have been using PC File Plus to do this, but when I
>get to about 30 pieces of data, the two character labels on the bar
>graphs don't fit anymore, and are discarded.
>
>Does anyone have any alternate suggestions for this?

I don't know of any graphing software that can handle more than 30
vertical bars, each with a 2-character label. Obviously, this is
pushing the limits of screen width or page width. However, a number
of graphing programs allow horizontal bars (or histograms), and
there should be no physical limit to the number of these you can
print, although there would still be a limit to the number that could
be displayed on a single screen. Example of this type of graph:

Label
   AA ********************************
   AB ****************
    .
    .
    .
   ZZ **********************

I'm not familiar with graphing software in the <= $50 range, but
the algorithm to do this type of graph is so simple, you should
be able to write a BASIC program to do it (or have a student do it
for you) in a few hours. The asterisks in the example would be
replaced by boxes in graphics mode. If you don't need great accuracy,
it could be done in text mode, using asterisks or some other character.
I sometimes put such histograms in the output of FORTRAN programs.

Barbara Vaughan