Submitted-by: Joe Dellinger <joe@hanauma.STANFORD.EDU>
Posting-number: Volume 14, Issue 6
Archive-name: vplot/part01


[ Make sure to read my note at the bottom of this introductory message!
	--r$ ]

Vplot device-independent kernel

Vplot is a graphical system created in the Stanford Earth Sciences
Department over the last decade. Its main weakness is that it is not
interactive (hopefully somebody out there can remedy this?). Its main
strength is that it supports a wide variety of primitives on a wide
variety of devices, and it is *free*.

At Stanford we run it on Convexes, Vaxen, Sun III's, and RT's.
It supports practically all the graphical primitives we've needed,
from simple line drawings to complicated text to dithered raster (all
arbitrarily combined, of course). Many different output devices are
supported under it, and any of the primitives can be done on any device.
(Although in general the more you have to simulate in software the
slower it takes to plot... so it may not always be worth it.)

With only this device-independent portion of the code you won't be able
to plot a thing; you'll need to also get the device-dependent code for
the device(s) of your choice (or follow the instructions given to create
your own).

I am purposely not including utilities such as programs to make graphs,
contour plots, etc, with this distribution. Obviously we have a large
number of such programs here, but they are for the most part many-years-old
buggy evolved messes which I do not wish to be responsible for inflicting
on the rest of the world. You should easily be able to adapt your existing
graphical utilities to work with Vplot (the advantage being that it makes
your programs device-independent).

Vplot is Copyrighted, but the restrictions are quite minimal and
hopefully you will find them reasonable. I welcome contributions;
but try not to ask for help from me if you can possibly avoid it
(especially questions you can answer for yourself by reading the
documentation) as I DO need to get on with the business of graduating!

	- Joe Dellinger, joe@hanauma.stanford.edu
	  Stanford Exploration Project


Vplot Device Dependent Code

This distribution contains drivers for the following:
	Envision 215-220-230 terminals, alias Lear Siegler 7100 series

	the Imagen 300 dots-per-inch series laser printers, using ImPress.

	"GPS" on a "Masscomp", according to the author, Stew Levin.
	Personally I don't know what those things are, nor can I verify
	how well-implemented this device driver is. Don't bug me if you
	have problems with this; you know more about it than I do.


	Printronix P300/P600 line printers.

	RasterTek 1-10, 1-75, and 1-80 high-resolution terminals.

	DEC REGIS series devices, which includes the Gigi and some
	VT series terminals.

	401X and 410X series Tektronix terminals. The 401X driver,
	unfortunately, I would only classify as "mostly finished". (It's
	hard to get people to finish something when they've got it doing
	enough for what they need.)

	- Joe Dellinger


[  Notes about filenames:

Some of these files use the nice BSD long filenames.  To avoid
breaking makefiles and the like, I have avoided renaming things.
Here is the list of filenames.  The MANIFEST might list some
things incorrectly, in particular the "vplothacker.doc.?" files
are "hacker.doc.?"

Sites with limited 14-character filenames should definitely save
all the parts after unpacking, to make sure they haven't lost
anything!
	--rich 

    15 Envision_device
    15 Masscomp_device
    15 cteklinestyle.c
    15 cteksetcoltab.c
    15 getpar_decode.c
    16 RasterTek_device
    16 gen_do_dovplot.c
    16 machdep_restrict
    17 Printronix_device
    17 TEST_aspect_ratio
    17 lines_normal_misc
    17 tube.example.note
    17 vplothacker.doc.1
    17 vplothacker.doc.2
    18 font_definitions.h
    18 libvplot_example.c
    18 lines_normal+cylig
    18 lines_normal+rolig
    19 lines_normal_script
    20 libvplot_example.dat
    21 getpar_string_store.c
]

