PGPLOT version 5.2.0
This version includes bug fixes, improvements in existing routines,
new routines, and new device drivers. All changes are intended to
be compatible: existing programs should run unchanged and produce
the same output (except for a few bug fixes).
Tested Systems
Version 5.2.0 has been tested with the following operating systems
and compilers. Drivers tested include: GI, GL, NU, PG, PP, PS, TT,
TK, VT, WD, X2, XM, XW (but not all combinations of drivers and
systems have been tested exhaustively).
- Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1), Sun Fortran (f77) 3.0.1,
Sun C (cc) 3.0.1 (tested on SPARC Ultra-1) [sol2 f77_cc].
- Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.5.1), GNU Fortran (g77) 0.5.18,
GNU C (gcc) 2.7.2.1 (tested on SPARC Ultra-1) [sol2 g77_gcc].
- SunOS 4.1.3, Sun Fortran (f77), GNU C (gcc) (tested on
Sun SPARCStation 2) [sun4 f77_gcc].
- OpenVMS AXP V6.1, DEC FORTRAN V6.2, DEC C V4.0,
DECwindows Motif 1.1 (tested on DEC 3000/M600).
- OpenVMS VAX V6.1, DEC FORTRAN V6.2, DEC C V4.0,
DECwindows Motif 1.2 (tested on VAXstation 4000-90).
New PGPLOT routines
The following routines are documented in the list of subroutines, and will be explained more
fully in the manual.
- pgaxis
- Draw a linear or logarithmic axis (more options will be added
in later versions).
- pgconf
- Shade area between two contours.
- pgerr1
- Draw a single error bar (useful for systems which cannot pass a
scalar to a routine that expects an array).
- pgpt1
- Draw a single graph marker (useful for systems which cannot
pass a scalar to a routine that expects an array).
- pgsclp, pgqclp
- Set/query clipping status (used by PGBOX and PGAXIS to ensure
that axes are not clipped against the viewport).
- pgqdt, pgqndt
- Inquiry routines used to determine the list of device types
available in a PGPLOT installation; useful for building menus,
etc.
- pgscrl
- Scroll a rectangular region of the screen; useful for making
animated displays without redrawing the whole screen; currently
only supported on X Window and related devices.
- pgtick
- Used by pgaxis to draw single labelled tick mark; may be called
directly, e.g., for special non-linear axes.
Modified PGPLOT routines
Internal changes that do not affect the API are not listed. Several
routines have been modified to improve their descriptions or
improve speed.
- pgctab
- The behavior of the arguments "brightness" and "contrast" has
been changed slightly. The color indices set by this routine will
be slightly changed from earlier versions of PGPLOT, except when
these arguments have their "default" values (0.5 and 1.0). The
routine is designed for use in an interactive environment in which
the user can explore the effect of changing these parameters; in
the new version they behave somewhat more as one might expect.
- pgqinf
- Added ability to determine whether a device supports
pgscrl.
New device drivers
- pgdriv (device type /PGMF)
- Creates a disk file in a private PGPLOT Metafile format.
This is a portable file format using only printable ASCII
characters. It is intended to replace the old metafile (created by
MFDRIV) which uses a binary, machine-dependent format. Subroutines
are being prepared to allow a PGPLOT program to read and display
files written in this format (an example program is provided in
directory
pgplot/pgmf
). The driver uses only standard
Fortran-77 and so should be portable to all operating systems on
which PGPLOT is supported.
- tkdriv (device type /XTK)
- For plotting in PGPLOT Tcl/Tk widgets under the X Window System
(UNIX systems only). An example program is included. Feedback on
this driver would be appreciated: send e-mail to Martin Shepherd
(
mcs@astro.caltech.edu
).
Modified device drivers
- lxdriv
- LaTeX picture environment driver. Fixed bug: picture size can
now be adjusted with PGPAP. (Note: The PostScript driver gives much
better results than this one, if your LaTeX environmant allows
PostScript files to be included in LaTeX documents.)
- xmdriv
- Motif widget driver. Added support for scrolling; improved
cursor handling; bug fixes.
- xwdriv
- X Window driver. Added support for scrolling; bug fixes. The
PGPLOT cursor can now be moved horizontally and vertically with the
keyboard arrow keys, which can be more precise than using the
mouse. Each keystroke moves the cursor by one pixel, or 10 pixels
if the SHIFT key is depressed.
Deprecated drivers
The following drivers are probably no longer useful, and their use
is discouraged. They have been moved from
pgplot/drivers
to pgplot/drivers/old
. If you
still need any of these drivers, please contact Tim Pearson.
- imdriv, vidriv
- Imagen printers.
- irdriv
- Silicon Graphics workstations: use the X-window drivers
instead.
- svdriv
- Sun workstations running SunView: use the X-window drivers
instead.
Changes to installation procedures
The installation instructions have been
rewritten. There are two changes you should be aware of:
- All the UNIX configuration files
(
pgplot/sys_*/*.conf
) have been modified to add new
parameters that may be required for the new widget drivers. If you
have made modifications to configuration files and haven't sent
them back to Tim Pearson, you will need to change them again.
- If you need to modify a configuration file for your system, it
is now recommended that you make a new configuration file called
"local.conf" in the build directory, by editing a configuration
file for a related system.
makemake
will now read this
file if you do not specify a configuration on the
makemake
command line.
New and modified demonstration programs
- pgdemo1
- Now uses new routine pgpt1 when a single marker is to be
drawn.
- pgdemo2
- Modified text-sample page.
- pgdemo3
- Added demo of new routine pgconf. Demo of pgvect has been moved
to pgdemo15.
- pgdemo4
- Demo of pgimag: modified to use slightly more realistic
transformation matrices, to show the use of pgctab, and to show how
the color palette may be modified interactively.
- pgdemo6
- Now uses new routine pgpt1 when a single marker is to be
drawn.
- pgdemo13
- Now uses new routine pgpt1 when a single marker is to be
drawn.
- pgdemo15
- New demo for routine pgvect (formerly in pgdemo3).
- pgdemo16
- New demo for bar and column charts. This uses a general-purpose
subroutine that may get included in a future version of pgplot,
although not exactly in this form.
- pgdemo17
- New demo, from Dr Martin Weisser, showing animated rotation of
a molecular structure.
Changes to C binding
The program that creates the PGPLOT C binding (pgbind
)
can now generate a binding for MS-Powerstation (Windows).