Ploticus data display engine Copyright Steve Grubb
Home Page

# ploticus package

## ploticus

## DESCRIPTION

Ploticus is a free software package that creates graphical data displays for web pages and intranets, paper reports, posters, slides, or interactive use.`` Ploticus is script-driven, and can be invoked automatically (automated) from web servers and other programs.`` Ploticus can work with flat ascii or spreadsheet data sets that can include numerics and text as well as dates and times in a wide variety of notations.`` It also has built-in capability of computing frequency distributions, cross-tabs, medians, quartiles, and curve fitting.``

## INCLUDES

Ploticus includes two programs, pl and pltab.`` pl creates single plots and pages where everything is layed out by coordinate position. pltab takes tabular text (such as raw program output) and sets it into a nice font, preserving columns and adding embellishments and plots.``

## GETTING STARTED

Create a ploticus script in a text editor and then run the ploticus script.`` For example, if your ploticus script is called pie2.htm, you could generate an EPS file by typing the command `pl -eps pie2.htm`

You can modify the script as desired with your favorite text editor.``

## AUTHOR

Stephen C. Grubb

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1998, 1999 Stephen C. Grubb. The complete copyright statement including permissions for modification and/or distribution is available at www.sgpr.net. It should also be present in the software distribution.``

## SEE ALSO

`http://www.sgpr.net` has the latest software versions, documentation, and a large gallery of examples.``

Here is a directory of the available man pages for ploticus (if they are not present you can download them from the above web site):

    PROGRAMS
    	 pl(1)  	the pl program
    	 pltab(1)	the pltab program

    GENERAL INFO
    	 Faq(pl)	frequently asked questions
    	 scripts(pl)	script syntax
    	 dataformat(pl)	plot data file formats
    	 scaleunits(pl)	various means of scaling a plot
    	 paper(pl)	producing paper-based reports (PostScript, EPS)
    	 web(pl)	producing web-based graphics (PNG, GIF)
    	 posters(pl)	producing posters
    	 slides(pl)	producing slides
    	 interactive(pl)	interactive graphics (X11)
    	 controlling(pl)	controlling ploticus from other programs

    PROCEDURES
    	 annotate(pl)	add annotation
    	 areadef(pl)	define a plotting area
    	 axis(pl)	render an axis, either X or Y
    	 bars(pl)	produce bar graphs or histograms
    	 bevelrect(pl)	draw a bevelled rectangle
    	 breakaxis(pl)	break an axis to accomodate an extreme value
    	 catslide(pl)	adjust placement of categories
    	 curvefit(pl)	generate a curve from data points
    	 defineunits(pl)	explicitly define scaling units
    	 drawcommands(pl)	draw using command set
    	 endproc(pl)	mark the end of a proc's attributes
    	 getdata(pl)	get or specify plot data
    	 import(pl)	import an external GIF file
    	 legend(pl)	render a legend
    	 legendentry(pl)	define a legend entry explicitly
    	 line(pl)	draw arbitrary lines
    	 lineplot(pl)	produce a line plot
    	 originaldata(pl)	reference original data set
    	 page(pl)	set page-wide attributes/ break page
    	 pie(pl)	produce a pie graph
    	 print(pl)	show outliers, contents of variables, etc.
    	 rangebar(pl)	produce a rangebar / boxplot
    	 rangesweep(pl)	produce a range sweep
    	 scatterplot(pl)	produce a scatterplot
    	 tabulate(pl)	run tabulations & frequency distributions
    	 transform(pl)	perform transformations on data set
    	 trailer(pl)	specify data at end of control file

    ATTRIBUTE TYPES
    	 attributetypes(pl)	description of attribute types
    	 color(pl)	colors
    	 condex(pl)	conditional expressions
    	 linedetails(pl)	line style, width, color, etc.
    	 symboldetails(pl)	symbol shape, color, etc.
    	 textdetails(pl)	text size, color, style, position, etc.

    DETAILS
    	 dates(pl)	working with date data
    	 times(pl)	working with time data
    	 missingdata(pl)	Working with missing data
    	 variables(pl)	system @variables
    	 functions(pl)	available $functions
    	 specialchars(pl)	Special characters
    	 config(pl) 	ploticus configuration files
    	 limits(pl)	program limitations
    	 Problems(pl)	where to ask questions & report problems

Markup created by unroff 1.0, `` `` January 15, 2001.