
Announcing ACE/gr Release 3.00 (patch level 0)

I wish to thank all who have participated in the development of
ACE/gr.

ACE/gr (AKA xmgr) is an XY-plotting tool for UNIX workstations using 
X/Motif. ACE/gr is an unfunded, unsupported, after-hours project that 
I hope proves useful.

A current version of the source, documentation, and some examples are 
available via anonymous ftp to: 

	ftp.ccalmr.ogi.edu [129.95.72.34]:CCALMR/pub/acegr/xmgr-3.00.tar.Z 

Remember to use a binary file transfer. 

There are compiled binaries (without support for NetCDF/HDF) for several 
architectures in:

	CCALMR/pub/acegr/bin

xmgr.HPUX9.bin.Z      ...  HP PA-RISC HPUX 9.x X11R5/Motif 1.2
xmgr.IRIX5.bin.Z      ...  SGI IRIX 5.2 X11R5/Motif 1.2
xmgr.RS6K325.bin.Z    ...  IBM RS6K AIX 3.2.5 X11R5/Motif 1.2
xmgr.LINUX.bin.Z      ...  LINUX Slackware 1.0 X11R5/Motif 1.2
xmgr.ULTRIX42A.bin.Z  ...  DEC MIPS Ultrix 4.2a X11R5/Motif 1.2
xmgr.SUN413.bin.Z     ...  SUN SunOS 4.1.3 X11R5/Motif 1.2
                           Will not work on Solaris 2.x

I could use a Solaris 2.x binary (bind it statically). Disk space
is at a premium around here, so I don't know how long these binaries
will be available (at least a week or so).

I am not able to E-mail ACE/gr, but there are services provided by various 
Internet sites that allow ftp by mail. You might try sending mail to 
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com as follows:

Subject: (hit return) Body-of-letter: help (return) quit 

I've not tried this, but it should give you instructions on how to use
this service.

There is now a mailing list for users of ACE/gr send mail to:

	majordomo@admin.ogi.edu

with a body of (not in the "Subject:" line):

	subscribe acegr

to subscribe. Majordomo is a mail list management package, and automatically
handles additions and removals from the list. For information about majordomo
at our site, sent mail to majordomo@admin.ogi.edu with a body of

	help

Please use the mailing list for comments, suggestions, help, and 
bug reports. Unlike my previous attempt at a mailing list, this
(theoretically) requires no effort on my part to maintain it.
To send mail to the list, use acegr@admin.ogi.edu.

The mail list should provide better service and less duplication 
of effort. Furthermore, to receive any response from me regarding 
problems with ACE/gr, you must be subscribed to the mail list.

About ACE/gr:

   * Point&click Motif interface.
   * Plots up to 10 graphs with 30 data sets per graph.
	each data set is limited by the size of available memory,
	I've plotted data sets in excess of 700k points.
	The 10 graphs may be displayed simultaneously with
	a popup that allows the graphs to be conveniently stacked,
	in rows and/or columns. There is no longer any limit on
        the number of graphs or sets, the default is 10 & 30.
   * Data read from files and/or pipes.
   * Support for reading 1 dimensional variables from NetCDF files.
	Using NCSA's NetCDF/HDF, 1 dimensional variables can be read
        from SDS.
   * Graph types XY, log-linear, linear-log, log-log, bar, 
	stacked bar charts.
   * Sets may be drawn with error bars in both directions equal or unequal
	on either side of the datum in X and in Y. Support for HI LOW OPEN 
	CLOSE data, Numerous symbol types, both hollow and filled, skyline 
	plots, histograms, impulse. Sets may be draw as polygons filled
	in several different ways, from the data to the graph minimum Y, 
	maximum Y, minumum X, maximum X, X = 0.0, Y = 0.0, or as a polygon.
   * Block data feature for those data sets arranged in equal length
	columns allowing sets of any type to be formed by any combination
	of the columns. Presently there is a 30 column limit, the length
	of the columns is limited by available memory.
   * Continuous display of the location of the pointer depending on 
	the current graph scaling. The format of the display can be
	set to any of the time-date formats, latitude/longitude. The
	default is to display the XY coordinates of the mouse in user 
	coordinates. As the graph focus changes, so does the format
	and scaling of the locator.
   * User-defined scaling, tick marks, labels, symbols, line styles, 
	colors. Tick labels may be drawn at any angle on either
	or both sides of the graph, staggered (offset for long
	labels). There are several formats for tick labels, including
	many time-date formats, latitude-longitude, decimal, exponential
	and power-of-10. Tick labels and tick marks may be specified
	by the user. Grid lines may be drawn in lieu of tickmarks.
	Each coordinate direction allows 3 axes, the primary, zero,
	and an alternate axis that allows a scale differing from the
	graph coordinate scaling.
   * Graph legends.
   * Annotative text with sub/super scripts, lines with/without arrow heads,
	boxes filled or unfilled.
   * Operations on data sets, kill, copy, move, reverse, sort, drop,
	join, coalesce, write, swap.
   * Region operations, define a region as inside or outside a polygon,
	or half planes defined by a line. Extract points from a region 
	to a set, delete points, evaluate an expression on points in a 
	region. Area and perimeter calculations from a polygon.
   * Mouse powered point editing, add points to a set, delete points
	from a set, move a point in a set (horizontally, vertically,
	or in both directions). There is a feature called tracker that
	when active, warps the pointer forward or backward through the
	points in a set, displaying the set number, the index of the point, 
	and the X, Y location of the point. There is a find point feature
	that allows information to be displayed about arbitrary points
	in sets.
   * Batch mode for unattended plotting.
   * Read and write parameters used during a session.
   * Polynomial regression, splines, running averages/minimums/maximums/
	standard deviations/medians, DFT/FFT, spectrum, phase, sampling,
	cross/auto-correlation, numerical integration, numerical 
	differentiation, histograms, evaluate expressions on sets.
   * Pan, zoom (mouse powered), shrink and expand the graph scaling, 
	with each graph allowing 20 different views through a mechanism 
	called the world stack. The graph viewport (where it appears
	on the page) can be set manually or by the mouse.
   * Command line interpreter with a history list and playback feature.
   * Autoscaling along each or both coordinate directions, on all sets
	or a selected set.
   * Support through device independent graphic drivers for
	PostScript, HPGL, and FrameMaker .mif format.

Please send comments, suggestions, bug reports to acegr@admin.ogi.edu.

--Paul

Paul J Turner - pturner@amb4.ccalmr.ogi.edu
Center for Coastal and Land-Margin Research
Oregon Graduate Institute
20000 NW Walker Road
PO Box 91000
Portland, OR 97291-1000
