AA MM MM PPPP l t 222 A A M M M M P P l t 2 2 A A M M M P P l t 2 2 AAAAAA M M PPPP l ooo ttt 2 A A M M P l o o t 2 A A M M P l o o t t 2 A A M M P l ooo ttt 22222 ======================================== V2.00 Demo Scientific and Technical Graph Plotting Software for the Commodore Amiga SciTech Software ©1992 Copyright Information ===================== This demonstration version of AMPlot2 is copyright of SciTech Software 1992. However, it is freely distributable providing all files are distributed and the files remain unaltered. The full version of AMPlot2 allows datasets of any size (limited only by available memory) and supports PostScript (including EPSF), HPGL and IFF-DR2D output. AMPlot2 is available from: SciTech Software, 23, Stag Leys, Ashtead, Surrey. KT21 2TD. Tel.: (0372) 275775 (International: +44 372 275772) AMPlot2 is available for £60.00. Upgrades from AMPlot V1.0 cost £12.00. AMPlot2 will run on all Amigas with at least 1MByte of memory. ---oooOooo--- Introduction ============ AMPlot2 is a scientific and technical graph plotting program for the Commodore Amiga designed to produce publication quality output (Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.). The program is fully compatible with AmigaDOS V2.0, the enhanced chip set and the Amiga A600 and A3000. Running AMPlot2 --------------- If the disk on which you are running AMPlot2 is not called `AMPlot2Demo', you should first double-click on the AMPlot2Assigns icon. Click the close gadget at the top left of the XIcon window when the installation has finished. You should then double click on the appropriate Setup icon, depending whether you have AmigaDOS 1.3 or 2.0. SetupV2.0 assumes you have the V37+ diskfont.library in your LIBS: directory. This library allows you to use the scaleable Compugraphic fonts on screen. If you have the file diskfont.classic in your LIBS: directory, then you already have the V37+ diskfont.library installed. If not, copy diskfont.library to diskfont.classic and copy the V37+ diskfont.library from the libs directory of your Extras disk to LIBS:. Click the close gadget at the top left of the XIcon window when the installation has finished. If you are using AmigaDOS V1.3 and do not have the Times and Helvetica fonts installed on your system, you should double click on the Fonts icon. This will create a temporary fonts directory on your RAM: disk and install the fonts there from your Extras disk. Click the close gadget at the top left of the XIcon window when the installation has finished. From the Workbench, AMPlot2 is run by double-clicking on its icon. A high resolution interlaced custom screen will be opened in which you will perform all manipulations of you graph. The screen contains 2 windows. The upper window is used to display the graph. The lower window is simply used to output messages from the program. On an NTSC Amiga, the message window may be obscured by the main window - it will come to the front when a message is displayed. The message window can be sent to the back by clicking on the gadget at the top right of the window. From a CLI, AMPlot2 is started by typing: AMPlot2 This demonstration version of AMPlot2 limits you to displaying no more than 10 datapoints and will not allow you to produce plot files. Consequently the Project/Plot menu item and its sub-items are disabled. ---oooOooo--- Notes ===== If you are using AmigaDOS V1.3, you may find that the title on the Y-axis of a graph on screen is cramped up against the Y-axis labels. In addition large font sizes (>= 24pt) may not render on the screen correctly. These are bugs in the Times and Helvetica fonts supplied with AmigaDOS V1.3. They are not problems with AMPlot2. The graphs will be rendered correctly in hard copy plots and upgrading to AmigaDOS V2.0 will solve the problem on screen. In addition, AmigaDOS V2.0 allows you to use the superior Compugraphic fonts on screen. Since these are outline fonts, they can be scaled much better. ---oooOooo--- Tutorial ======== This tutorial will let you experiment with some of the features of AMPlot2. Feel free to experiment. There are a number of more advanced features not described in the tutorial, but covered in the reference section. ---oooOooo--- Reference ========= This section briefly describes each of the menu functions and requesters in AMPlot2. The Menus --------- Project/Open Read a data file Project/Save Save a data file Project/Save As Save a data file Project/Edit Edit the data file Project/Plot/PostScript Save an image in PostScript format Project/Plot/HPGL Save an image in HPGL format Project/Plot/IFF-DR2D Save an image in IFF-DR2D format. Project/Paper Sets dimension of the plot Project/Set Pens Set colour/thickness of the 6 pens Project/Screen Palette Set the screen palette Project/Screen To Back Send the AMPlot2 screen to the back Project/About Display information about the program Project/Quit Exit from AMPlot2 Style/XY Select line graph style Style/Scatter Select scatter plot style Style/Bar Select barchart graph style Style/Pie Select piechart graph style Style/Errors Toggle display of error bars Style/Eject Slice Eject a piechart slice Style/Line Setup Set details of line and scatter styles Style/Bar Setup Set details of barchart style Style/Pie Setup Set details of piechart style Axes/LogX Toggle log x-axis Axes/LogY Toggle log y-axis Axes/Boxed Toggle boxing of axes Axes/Grid Toggle grid display Axes/Set Axes Set axis bounds and ticks Axes/Follow Zero Toggle axis follow zero Text/Title Set the graph title Text/Axis Titles Set the axis titles Text/Axis & Pie Labels Set the axis labels Text/Key Set the key Text/Extra Labels Add extra text labels to the graph Lines/Pen Set the pen for a dataset Lines/Style/... Set the line style for a dataset Lines/Fills/... Fill a bar or pie slice Lines/Fill Control Set details of fill style Fitting/Regression Simple regression fitting control Fitting/Robust Toggle robust straight line fitting Fitting/Fourier Fourier smoothing control Fitting/Rexx Fit Regression fitting of ARexx function Rexx/Execute Macro One-off execution of ARexx macro Rexx/Install Macro Install an ARexx macro Rexx/Debug Toggle debugging of ARexx commands File Requesters --------------- If you are using AmigaDOS V2.0, the system file requester will be used. Under AmigaDOS V1.3, the Heath file requester will be used. Paper Requester --------------- The paper requester allows you to define the dimensions of your plot and, for PostScript and HPGL plots the offset of the bottom left hand corner of the graph. In addition the EPSF check-box allows you to control whether standard PostScript, or EPSF is generated. Set Pens Requester ------------------ AMPlot2 supports 6 pens. Each pen has an associated colour (for HPGL and screen display), thickness (for PostScript and IFF-DR2D), datapoint mark and link setting. This requester allows you to set the colour and thickness. The datapoint mark and link setting are defined by the Line Setup requester since they apply only to line graphs and scatter plots. Screen Palette Requester ------------------------ This requester allows you to select your preferred colours for screen display. These may be chosen to minimise interlace flicker. About Requester --------------- The about requester displays copyright information and the name of the ARexx port if you have ARexx on your system. Line Setup Requester -------------------- The line setup requester allows you to define the datapoint mark associated with each pen and whether the datapoint marks are linked in the scatter style. In addition, the width of error bars and the size of datapoint marks can be set. Bar Setup Requester ------------------- The bar setup requester controls the style of barchart display. Barcharts may be overlayed, grouped, stacked or outline. (Note that grouped and stacked styles will not be allowed with certain datasets). In the overlayed style the bars of successive datasets are shrunk by the percentage specified in this requester and a check box allows you to shrink the first dataset. In addition this switches on and off shrinkage of bars in the grouped style. The `fill all bars' checkbox controls whether fills are applied to the whole dataset or to individual bars. Pie Setup Requester ------------------- The pie setup requester allows you to define where the first slice of the piechart is (0 = right-pointing x-axis, 90 = up-pointing y-axis, etc.). The percentage by which slices may be ejected is also specified here. Set Axes Requester ------------------ This requester allows you to define the minimum and maximum values displayed on each axis and the spacing of ticks and subticks. The `Auto' gadgets cause the program to calculate the `best' bounds and ticks. The Clip checkbox causes data outside the specified bounds not to be plotted while the Sub checkbox switches on and off subticks on both axes. If you require subticks on one axis only, they should be switched on and the subtick spacing for the axis where they are not required should be set to 0.0. Title Requester --------------- Here, the title for the graph is specified. The position refers to the bottom centre of the text and may be typed in or a click on the graph will set the values. The `Centre' gadget calculates the position as half way across and 90% up the graph. The font and size are also specified here. Axis Titles Requester --------------------- Titles for the axes and their fonts are specified here. Axis/Pie Labels Requester ------------------------- This requester allows you to set the fonts used for the axis labels and for labels placed next to slices of a piechart. The precision of the axis labels may also be set. This is the number of decimal places to be displayed. If a negative value is given, exponential form is used for the axis labels. For log axes, only the sign of the precision is taken into account. The three check boxes allow labelling of the axes to be switched off and labels on the x-axis to be centred. This can be useful for barcharts. Clicking the `Bar/Pie Labels' gadget brings up a further requester. Bar/Pie Labels Requester ------------------------ This requester allows you to specify text for each bar or pie slice. You can step through the labels with the `Next' and `Prev' gadgets. The `Remove' gadget removes all the labels. For large datasets, this requester will not be displayed since it would not be possible to place all the labels along the x-axis. Key Requester ------------- The key requester allows you to specify some text for each dataset. As with the `Bar/Pie Labels Requester' you can step through the labels with the `Next' and `Prev' gadgets. The font for the key is specified here and the position of the first item is specified (this may be done by clicking in the graph). The `Remove' gadget will switch off the key. The key will appear as a set of lines and datapoints, or (for barcharts and piecharts) a set of shaded swatches next to the text. Extra Labels Requester ---------------------- This allows any number of arbitrary pieces of text to be added to the graph. Once again, one can specify the position by clicking on the graph and one can step through the labels using the `Next' and `Prev' gadgets. The `Kill' gadget removes a label. The `Kill All' gadget removes all labels. Pen Requester ------------- This asks for a pen number. After clicking the `OK' gadget, you are required to click on a datapoint. This dataset will then appear in the specified pen number. Fill Control Requester ---------------------- This allows you control over fills within the limitation of the display device. PostScript, EPSF and IFF-DR2D output allows both hatched and shaded fills while HPGL allows only hatched fills. The screen only shows shaded fills. The thickness (for PostScript and IFF-DR2D) and spacing of the hatching may also be specified. Linear Regression Requester --------------------------- This allows fitting of a simple polynomial of the form: y = a + bx^2 + cx^3 + dx^4 + .... The degree of the polynomial defines the number of terms used. The degree must be less than 20 and also less than the number of points in the dataset. If the degree is 2, a straight line will be produced. The tolerence specifies the accuracy to which the fitting is performed. If the coefficients are of the same order as the accuracy, a much smaller value should be specified for the tolerence. The `Write Data' checkbox causes detailed information on the fitting to be written to a file. Fourier Smoothing Requester --------------------------- This allows Fourier smoothing of the dataset to be performed. The smoothing factor specifies the number of datapoints which are `averaged' during the smoothing procedure (this need not be an integer). Rexx Linear Regression Requester -------------------------------- This allows fitting of polynomials written in ARexx. The requester works in the same way as the `Linear Regression Requester', but also allows a file requester to be displayed in which the function macro can be specified. ---oooOooo--- The Datafile ============ The datafile used by AMPlot2 can be as simple as 2 columns of numbers or may contain detailed commands to specify the exact format of the graph. These commands are listed in the Table 1. When you save a graph from within AMPlot2, these commands are added to the datafile to specify the exact format of the graph. ---oooOooo--- The ARexx Interface =================== The ARexx interface for AMPlot2 is very powerful. Almost all functions available through the Intuition interface are available through ARexx. In addition, line segments and additional datapoints can be placed on the graph using ARexx commands. The ARexx interface is also used for fitting of more complex polynomials using singular value decomposition. Functions to be fitted are written in ARexx. These commands are detailed in the Table 1. ---oooOooo--- Tool Types ========== A number of defaults can be set using icon tooltypes. See your Amiga manual if you do not know how to set the tooltypes for an icon. Table 2 shows the tooltypes which may be set. These defaults cannot be set if you run AMPlot2 from a CLI. ---oooOooo--- Tables ====== Table 1: AMPlot Datafile and ARexx Commands -------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commands applicable to Commands which ---------------------- do not cause the DataFile ARexx graph to replot --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Data ----- NEWSET x COLUMNS x NDATA x Output ------ SIZE x x x OFFSET x x x EPSF x x x NOEPSF x x Pens ---- PEN x x x STYLE