PlotutilsHome

update by fralaz1971@gmail.com

december 2021

This sourceforge page of the GNU plotutils page, wants
to help people in the usage of this interesting product.
Binary versions and source code of the GNU plotutils are included.
It is based on the official version 2.6, plus some little modifications to make it compile also
under Microsoft Windows OS and Windows-like environments, WINE on GNU/Linux included
(ReactOS to be tested soon).
Binary MS-Win version has been tested to work well on MS Windows 10 64bit and Windows Vista 32bit

Binaries for MS win

In particular I added binaries to run plotutils apps on MS win under msys2 supporting
X11 display capabilities (based on cygwin X dll libraries) and displaying with Xming X server
for MS win. The Win binaries are compiled using the MinGW / mingw32 port of gnu gcc.
The X terminal functionality needs more posix/unix-like support, so at the moment
was not possible for me complete to compile it with X support on pure mingw,
and still needs the msys-2.0.dll binary library to work and to be started in the msys2 terminal,
that is preventing it from using that version on WINE, where it runs only the binary
version without X support.

Binaries for MacOS

It is possible to install the MacOS binaries in any directory,
the only important thing is that the directory containing
the binaries is then included in the PATH environment variable.
If you have other projects in /opt/local you can add it as
/opt/local/plotutils26-MacOS
then
/opt/local/plotutils26-MacOS/bin
should be included in the list of paths of the PATH environment variable.
This can be written permanently in the
~/.bashrc
file (or .profile or .bash_profile)
some like
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/plotutils26-MacOS/bin
after that is possible to call from the shell the apps like
graph --help

the only point to install the binary, is that it is yet compiled with
Xorg support, and on MacOS this should work with XQuartz running.
Xorg support means you can then use the X terminal like
graph -T X < datafile
though on MacOS using xterm (and only that terminal) you can pop-up a graphics terminal with the tektronic terminal
echo 2 4 3 9 | graph -T tek
Also the lib variable should be added in the

DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable:

export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/local/plotutils26-MacOS/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

it is possible to use the command
otool

to check the dynamic libraries and there are other ways
to set up this on MacOS, I tested only adding the path to DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH.

It is also possible to compile the source code on MacOS MacOSX
and all Darwin based, you need Xorg headers and binary libraries.

update by fralaz1971@gmail.com

june 2021

to compile on linux for linux

. local-linux-configure.sh

to crosscompile for win with w64-mingw32-gcc
from within the msys terminal (not mingw terminal)
. local-cross-configure-win.sh
and then from any terminal
mingw32-make

building on MS windows 2.6 version
gives graph executable that create
corrupted png and gif images
when saving files redirected files on disk
graph -T png ... > out.png
graph -T gif ... > out.gif
created a workoround adding a -o switch
to save the plot on disk file
graph -T png -o myfile.png ...
graph -T gif -o myfile.gif ...

This is release 2.6 of the GNU plotutils (plotting utilities) package,
including release 4.4 of GNU libplot: a thread-safe function library for
exporting two-dimensional vector graphics files, and for displaying
animated vector graphics under the X Window System. The Web page for the
package is http://www.gnu.org/software/plotutils/plotutils.html .

In the top-level source directory, the file INSTALL contains generic
instructions for installing a GNU package, and the file INSTALL.pkg
contains package-specific instructions. Please read them in full,
as well as this file, before attempting to install the package.

Also in the top-level source directory, the file COMPAT contains release
notes, and comments on compatibility with previous versions. The file
PROBLEMS is worth looking at too.

Please send bug reports to bug-plotutils@gnu.org, and suggestions for
longer-range improvements to both bug-plotutils@gnu.org and the principal
author and current maintainer, Robert Maier rsm@math.arizona.edu.

NOTE: Neither the pic2plot' program nor thelibplotter' C++ class library
is built by default, since they require a working C++ compiler. But it is
easy to request that they be built. For details, see INSTALL.pkg. Also, a
standalone version of the libxmi' scan-conversion library isn't built by default, sincelibxmi' is distributed as a separate package.

---

The contents of the plotutils package are:

1. libplot. This is the function library for device-independent
   two-dimensional vector graphics that the sample
   command-line programs graph',plot', pic2plot',tek2plot', and `plotfont' (see below) are based on.
   On platforms that support shared libraries, it is
   installed as a shared library.

   If you are a programmer, you may use this library yourself,
   to export vector graphics in many different file formats.
   You may also use it to create vector graphics animations
   under the X Window System.
   
   There are two versions of libplot: a conventional library
   of C functions, which is also referred to as libplot, and
   its C++ counterpart `libplotter', which is a class library.
   The latter is more convenient to use if you are programming
   in C++.  You must request at installation time that
   `libplotter' be built and installed, since it is not done
   automatically.  (See ./INSTALL.pkg.)  When we refer to
   `libplot', by default we mean both the C and the C++ versions.
   
   libplot includes functions to draw objects of many types:
   lines and polylines, circles and ellipses, circular and
   elliptic arcs, quadratic and cubic Bezier curves, and
   marker symbols.  Postscript-style `paths', made up of many
   segments, may be drawn.  There is support for color (both
   pen color and fill color for objects).
   
   Output formats include X11, PNG, PNM (i.e. PBM/PGM/PPM),
   pseudo-GIF, SVG, Adobe Illustrator, Postscript and
   Encapsulated Postscript (editable with the idraw drawing
   editor), CGM (by default, binary version-3 CGM output that
   complies with the WebCGM profile for Web-based vector
   graphics), Fig (editable with the xfig drawing editor), PCL
   5, HP-GL and HP-GL/2, Regis, Tektronix, and GNU metafile
   format.  GNU metafile format may be translated into any of
   the other formats with the `plot' utility (see below).
   
   NOTE: pseudo-GIF format is not the same as GIF format,
   since it does not use the LZW coding scheme.  So it does
   not transgress the well known Unisys LZW patent.  However,
   applications that can read GIF files should be able to read
   pseudo-GIF files.  libplot can also create animated
   pseudo-GIFs.
   
   libplot includes extensive support for accurate sizing and
   positioning of text.  This includes the placement of
   subscripts and superscripts.  Its X11, SVG, Illustrator,
   Postscript, CGM, and Fig drivers all support the 35
   standard Postscript fonts, and its PCL 5 and HP-GL/2
   drivers support the 45 standard LaserJet fonts.  In
   addition, all of these, together with the other (bitmap)
   drivers, support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts.  The
   Hershey fonts include HersheyCyrillic and HersheyEUC (for
   Japanese).  Note that the Hershey fonts are not
   anti-aliased, so they will look much better in vector
   output, than in bitmap output.
   
   All supported fonts may be arbitrarily rotated and scaled.
   All fonts, except for symbol and dingbat fonts, and the
   Hershey Cyrillic and Japanese fonts, use the ISO-Latin-1
   encoding (a superset of ASCII; the ISO-Latin-1 support in
   the 20 non-Cyrillic, non-Japanese Hershey fonts is
   extensive but not quite complete).
   
   (Clones of the 35 standard Postscript fonts, in Type 1
   format, have been contributed by URW GmbH for distribution
   under the GNU General Public License.  They may well be
   available on your system, already.  If not, you may use the
   versions distributed with this package.  Installation
   instructions are in the file ./INSTALL.fonts.  Instructions
   for obtaining and installing Type 1 versions of the 45
   standard LaserJet fonts are included as well.)
   
   Similarly to Postscript, libplot has the nice feature that
   user coordinates (in terms of which you express the
   location of graphical objects) may be transformed to device
   coordinates by an arbitrary affine transformation.  A stack
   of drawing states (i.e., graphics contexts) is supported too.
   

2. libxmi. This is a function library for drawing X11-style vector
   graphics (lines, polylines, polygons, circular and elliptic
   arcs) on an in-memory bitmap. It is small, but powerful:
   it contains a modernized version of the scan conversion
   code contained in most X11 servers, which was written in
   the mid-to-late 1980's by programmers associated with the
   X Consortium. It is built and installed only if you specify
   the `--enable-libxmi' option to ./configure. The public
   header file for libxmi, xmi.h, will also be installed, as
   will the documentation (in texinfo format).

   The reason `libxmi' isn't built by default is that it's
   also distributed as a separate package.  Actually, what
   isn't built by default is a standalone version of libxmi.
   libplot/libplotter always contains an internal libxmi
   module, which helps it produce output in bitmap formats.
   

3. Sample command-line programs based on libplot, including the following.

4. graph. A full-featured scientific plotting program for plotting
   XY (i.e. 2-dimensional) data. It plots a stream of
   datapoints, in real time if possible. There is a
   well-chosen set of command-line options for adjusting the
   visual appearance of the plot, labelling axes (with
   expressions that may include subscripts and superscripts,
   and mathematical symbols), choosing marker symbols from
   various fonts, etc. Multiplotting is supported (a plot may
   include sub-plots, side-by-side or inset). Filled regions
   are also supported.

   Unlike the well-known plotting program `gnuplot', `graph'
   is device-independent in the sense that its options do not
   depend on the display device the plot is destined for.
   To the maximum degree feasible, the output of `graph' will
   appear the same on all display devices.
   
   Which display device is driven, or output format is
   produced, is specified by the `-T' option.  There are
   effectively many different variants of `graph',
   distinguished by the intended display device.
   
   graph -T X      A variant that pops up an X window on an X
           display, and draws the plot in it.  It is
           most useful on modern (X11R6) displays,
           which can rotate and scale text
           arbitrarily.  It uses the 35 standard
           Postscript fonts.
   
   graph -T png    A variant that produces output in PNG
           (Portable Network Graphics) format.  Output
           in this format can be viewed with the free
           image display application `xv'.
   
   graph -T pnm    A variant that produces output in 
           `Portable Anymap' format (PBM/PGM/PPM,
           whichever is appropriate).  Output
           in this format can be viewed with `xv',
                           or translated to other formats with the
           `netpbm' package.
   
   graph -T gif    A variant that produces output in a
           pseudo-GIF format that can be displayed
           by many applications that understand    
           GIF format.  The pseudo-GIF format uses
           run-length encoding, so it does not
           transgress the well known Unisys LZW
           patent.
   
   graph -T svg    A variant that produces output in SVG
                   (scalable vector graphics) format.  SVG is
                   the XML-based graphics format that
                           has been endorsed by the W3 Consortium
           for Web use.  See 
           http://www.w3.org/Graphics .
           For comments on compatibility with other
           software that can edit or display
           SVG files, see the file ./COMPAT.
   
   graph -T ai A variant that produces output in a
           format that can be viewed or edited
           with Adobe Illustrator.
   
   graph -T ps A variant that produces EPS (encapsulated
           Postscript) output, which can be printed,
           displayed, or encapsulated in other
           documents.  Any standard page size is
           supported (letter, legal, ANSI sizes, ISO
           sizes such as a4 and a3, etc.)  The EPS
           output includes annotations that permit it
           to be edited with the freeware `idraw'
           drawing editor, or its successor
           `drawtool'.  See http://www.vectaport.com .
   
   graph -T cgm    A variant that produces CGM vector graphics
           files (Computer Graphics Metafiles, as
           defined by ISO 8632:1992).  By default, its
           output files are binary version-3 CGM files
           that conform to the WebCGM profile for
           Web-based vector graphics (for WebCGM info,
           see http://www.cgmopen.org/ ).
   
   graph -T fig    A variant that produces a plot that
           the freeware `xfig' drawing editor can
           edit.  xfig can export the plot in numerous
           formats, such as GIF, X11 bitmap, and EPS.
           See http://duke.usask.ca/~macphed/soft/fig .
   
   graph -T pcl    A variant that produces a plot in PCL 5
           format, which is a sophisticated version of
           Hewlett-Packard's Printer Control Language.
           You may send the plot to a non-Postscript
           LaserJet or a high-end inkjet.  (Most
           inkjets do not support PCL 5.)  This
           variant supports the 45 standard PCL 5
           fonts that are built into many
           non-Postscript printers, such as LaserJets.
   
   graph -T hpgl   A variant that produces HP-GL (or by
           default, HP-GL/2) output.  HP-GL is the
           Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language, and may
           be printed out or plotted on a
           Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer or
           plotter.  Also many applications, e.g. CAD
           applications, can import HP-GL or HP-GL/2
           figures.  This variant supports the 45
           standard PCL 5 fonts that are built into
           many non-Postscript printers, such as
           LaserJets.
   
   graph -T regis  A variant that produces ReGIS graphics 
           output, suitable for viewing on a
           DECwindows dxterm or a DEC graphics
           terminal, such as a VT340, VT330, VT241, or
           VT240.  (This variant lacks the Postscript
           fonts of the other variants though, like
           them, it has a complete set of vector
           Hershey fonts.)
   
   graph -T tek    A variant that produces Tektronix output,
           suitable for viewing, e.g., on an X Windows
           xterm or an MS-DOS kermit doing Tektronix
           emulation.  (This variant lacks the
           Postscript fonts of the other variants
           though, like them, it has a complete set of
           vector Hershey fonts.  Also, it does not
           support filling of regions.)
   
   graph       The `raw' variant, which produces output in
           GNU graphics metafile format.  This is an
           enhanced version of the traditional plot(5)
           format found on some operating systems.
           The `plot' program (see below) must be used
           to convert this to another format, or to
           drive a display device.
   
   Of these variants, `graph -T X', `graph -T tek', and raw
   `graph' are real-time.  That means that under some
   circumstances, they act as filters: they read data points
   from standard input, and plot them as they are read.  For
   this to happen, the abscissa and ordinate ranges of the
   plot must be specified on the command line.  (E.g., the
   user would do
   
       program | graph -T X -x xmin xmax -y ymin ymax
   
   where `program' generates a stream of data points.)
   
   All variants of `graph' will accept ASCII input (the
   default), or unformatted binary input (i.e., a stream of
   floating point numbers or integers), or input in the
   `table' format produced by the program `gnuplot' (which you
   may select by specifying the `-I g' option).  Gnuplot will
   produce table-format output if you do `set terminal table';
   you can pipe gnuplot's output to any of the variants of
   graph by using the gnuplot `set output' command.  If you
   are piping to `graph -T X', by repeatedly using the gnuplot
   `set output' command you may easily produce an arbitrarily
   large number of plots in different X windows, each in a
   different style.
   

5. plot. This is a so-called plot filter, which takes a stream in GNU
   graphics metafile format, and either translates it to
   another format or uses it to drive a display device.

   Since this distribution includes `graph -T X', `graph -T
   png', `graph -T pnm', `graph -T gif', `graph -T svg',
   `graph -T ai', `graph -T ps', `graph -T cgm', `graph -T
   fig', `graph -T pcl', `graph -T hpgl', `graph -T regis',
   and `graph -T tek', all of which can drive display devices
   directly, `plot' is only occasionally useful.  It may be
   used, though, to produce graphical output in more than one
   format at once.  To do this, you would pipe the output of a
   datapoint-generating program to the raw variant of `graph',
   and then use the `tee' command to direct the output of raw
   `graph', which is in metafile format, to two separate
   invocations of `plot'.
   
   `plot' may also be useful as a post-processor for older
   programs that produce output in the traditional plot(5)
   graphics format.  GNU metafile format is an enhanced version
   of plot(5) format.
   

6. pic2plot. This is a utility program that takes a file in the pic
   language, and either translates it to another format or
   displays it on an X display. The pic language, which was
   developed at Bell Laboratories, is used for creating
   box-and-arrow diagrams of the kind frequently found in
   technical papers and textbooks. It was originally
   introduced as a feature of the Bell Labs `troff'
   text-processing software.

   You must request at installation time that pic2plot be
   built and installed, since it is not done automatically.
   (See ./INSTALL.pkg.)
   
   pic2plot is largely compatible with `gpic', the GNU
   implementation of the pic-to-troff translator.  However,
   since it is built on top of libplot, it supports some new
   features.  It supports all the output formats that libplot
   supports: X11, PNG, PNM, GIF, SVG, AI, PS, WebCGM, Fig,
   PCL, HP-GL, Tek, and Metafile.
   

7. tek2plot. This is a utility program that emulates a Tektronix 4014
   terminal in the sense that it reads a stream of Tektronix
   commands, and either produces an output file in another
   format or displays the corresponding graphics on an X
   display. An output file in any of the graphics file
   formats that libplot support can be produced.

   tek2plot is useful if you have a legacy program that was
   designed to drive a Tektronix terminal or emulator, or if
   you have files in Tektronix format that need to be
   translated to a modern format, or edited.
   
   The directory ./tek2plot/teksamples includes a few files in
   Tektronix format that you may experiment with.  You may
   also experiment by piping the output of `gnuplot', if you
   have configured it to produce Tektronix-format plots, to
   these filters (the gnuplot terminal types `kc_tek40xx',
   `km_tek40xx', `tek40xx', and `vttek' all work).  tek2plot
   does an excellent job of emulating the non-interactive
   features of a Tektronix 4014, and although it does not
   support all the features supported by the Tektronix
   emulator in the MS-DOS version of kermit, it can certainly
   parse the output of the gnuplot Tektronix terminal drivers.
   

8. plotfont. This is a simple utility that prints out a character
   chart for any font available to the above four utilities
   (graph, plot, pic2plot, tek2plot) and the underlying
   libplot library. All output formats are supported. Which
   fonts are available depends on the `-T' option that is
   specified, i.e., on the output format.

9. hersheydemo. This is a demo program for the Hershey vector fonts,
   as implemented in the libplot library. It outputs a demo
   page, designed by Dr. Hershey himself. The page is taken
   from his 1972 article "A computer system for scientific
   typography", published in Computer Graphics and Image
   Processing (vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 373-385).

   Note that the Hershey vector fonts look much better in
   vector output formats, than they do in bitmap formats.
   That is because libplot does not currently do anti-aliasing
   of fonts (or more accurately the libxmi rasterization
   library, which it relies on, does not).  You would do
   `hersheydemo -T ps > demo.ps' to produce PS output,
   `hersheydemo -T svg > demo.svg' to produce SVG output, etc.
   

10. Command-line mathematical programs not based on libplot, including the
    following.

    spline. This program does spline interpolation of input data, which
    may be of arbitrary dimensionality. That is, it takes a
    file of datapoints, and interpolates between them to
    produce an interpolated segment of the input data. It acts
    as a filter, though usually not as a real-time one (in the
    most common mode of operation, the entire input must be
    read before any data points are output).

    The output spline is normally a cubic spline, but if a
    `tension' parameter is set to a nonzero value, the output
    spline will be a so-called spline under tension.  There is
    also support for doing cubic Bessel interpolation.  If this
    option is selected, `spline' acts as a true real-time
    filter, since cubic Bessel interpolation is local rather
    than global.
    

11. ode. This interactive program supplements the computation engine
    of gnuplot', which will compute and plot functions, by providing the ability to integrate systems of ordinary differential equations (ODE's). ode will solve the initial value problem for one or more first-order ODE's, when provided with an explicit expression for each equation. ode parses the set of equations and the set of initial conditions, which may be typed in manually or read from a file, and then produces a stream of data points that may be piped to any of the variants ofgraph'. If a real-time
    variant of graph' (e.g.graph -T X' or `graph -T tek') is
    used, the numerical solution will be displayed in real
    time, as it is generated.

    One application (certainly not the only one!) of ode is to
    graph the indefinite integrals of the sorts of function
    that gnuplot can graph.  All the primitive real-valued
    functions that are built into gnuplot are built into ode.
    
    A directory of sample ode input files is installed (usually
    as /usr/local/share/ode or /usr/share/ode) as part of the
    package.
    

12. double. This is a filter for converting, scaling and cutting
    unformatted (binary) or ASCII data streams. It is still
    under development and is not yet documented.

[Francesco Lazzarotto]

[PlotutilsHome]