PGPLOT > Documentation > Installation Manual > Release Notes v5.3.1

PGPLOT version 5.3.1

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 5.3.1 has been tested with the following operating systems and compilers. Drivers tested include: GI, NU, PP, PS, TT, XW (but not all combinations of drivers and systems have been tested exhaustively).

New PGPLOT routines

The following routines are documented in the list of subroutines.

pgarc
draw an arc of a circle
pgpie
fill a sector of a circle
pgqids
returns the number of open PGPLOT devices, and a list of their identifiers
pgshd1
shade area under curve
pgshd2
shade area between two curves
pgsclo
controls orientation of labels drawn by PGCONL
pgqclo
query PGCONL orientation parameter

Modified PGPLOT routines

Internal changes that do not affect the API are not listed.

pgcirc
correct a bug which sometimes caused it to plot octagons instead of smoother circles
pgscrn
will now accept hex-coded RGB colors (e.g., '#ff0000') as well as names (e.g., 'red').
pgsls, pgqls
there are now 10 different predefined dashed line-styles, instead of 5

New escape-sequence in text

'\,' is an invisible thin-space character (half the width of a normal space).

Modified Example Programs

pgdemo1
exercise pgarc, pgpie, pgshd1, pgshd2
pgdemo2
exercise '\,' escape and new line-styles
pgdemo3
show effect of contour label orientation
pgdemo4
rewritten to redraw the picture when the colour table is changed, rather than assuming that a dynamic color table is available
pgdemo13
exercise pgqids
pgdemo16

Modified device drivers

psdriv (Postscript drivers)
Some printing systems, notably CUPS, erroneously print multipage PostScript files on a single page if they include an Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) header. To work around this, I have removed the EPS header from /PS, /CPS, /VPS, /VCPS files. This may cause problems with some programs that expect to find the EPS header present.
I have added a new variant of PostScript, /EPS. This is intended for creating encapsulated PostScript files, and it includes an EPS header in the file. The default picture size is 6.0 inches wide by 4.5 inches high. Othwerwise the behavior is similar to /VCPS.
PGPLOT still puts the “bounding box” at the end of the file rather than the beginning. Although this is legal PostScript, it can cause problems with some programs (e.g., early versions of dvips, and pstopdf).
xwdriv (X Window System drivers)
pgxwin_server now allocates 256 colors on devices where there is no contention for color resources
Various other corrections from Martin Shepherd, including: correct error in definition of horizontal/vertical line cursors; fix for Compaq Digital Unix (OSF1).

Documentation

Updated documentation in HTML format is now included in the pgplot/doc directory. To view the documentation, direct a web browser to the index file pgplot/doc/../index.html. A modern browser that supports style sheets is recommended.

Operating System Support

Support is added for Mac OS X (Darwin) running the X-window system or the AquaTerm display. Use options "darwin g77_gcc" with makemake. The files are in directory sys_darwin. Support for earlier versions of Mac OS has been removed (it was never very good anyway).

Support is added for the Intel C/C++/Fortran compiler for Linux: use options "linux ifc_icc" with makemake.

Support is added for making 64-bit SPARC libraries under Solaris. Use options "sol64 f77_cc" with makemake.

VMS/OpenVMS is no longer supported.

Miscellaneous changes

drivers.list
now comes with all portable drivers selected by default
aaaread.me
updated to 5.3.1; ftp and www address changed
makehelp
[removed] (VMS help file no longer supported)
makemake
added new routines; no longer makes pgplot.hlp