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Plot facilities on the College of Science DECSYSTEM-20 currently
consist of the following:
1) One very large and powerful software system, called <PLOT79>.
2) Simple access (with NO software changes) to the following plotters:
* ADM3A+ CRT
* Apple LaserWriter laser printer
* BBN BitGraph CRT
* C-Itoh Prowriter dot matrix printer
* Canon LBP-8 A2 laser printer
* CalComp 9xx plotters (using CalComp calls -- see below)
* CalComp Sanders Model 84 pen plotter
* Chromatics 4x00 series color CRT
* DEC GIGI CRT
* DEC VT240 CRT
* Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer
* Form & Substance Microangelo CRT
* Hewlett-Packard 2468A CRT
* Hewlett-Packard 2686A Laser Jet laser printer
* Hewlett-Packard HPGL pen plotters
* Hewlett-Packard LaserJet laser printer
* Houston Instruments DMP-L pen plotter
* Houston Instruments HIPLOT pen plotter
* Imagen 8/300 laser printer
* Imlac PDS-1D refresh-type CRT
* Intecolor VHR-19 color CRT
* KMW Vector Processor
* METAFILE generic plot file
* MPI Sprinter dot matrix printer
* PCP LaserImage 2000 laser printer
* Printronix 300/600 line printer
* Ramtek 6211 color CRT
* SERVOGOR pen plotter
* Tektronix 4010 storage-tube CRT and alphanumeric 4010-compatible
retrofits
* Tektronix 4010-compatible pen plotter
* Tektronix 4014 storage-tube CRT
* Tektronix 4025 dot-matrix CRT
* Tektronix 4105-compatible color CRT
* Tektronix 4662/4663 pen plotters
* Toshiba P1351 dot matrix printer
* UUCC's CalComp plotter
The METAFILE device is not a plotter, but rather a host computer
independent and plot device independent standard graphics file. It is
suitable for exchange of plots between different installations, as well
as for archiving of plots.
Existing software which contains calls to any of the standard CalComp routines AXIS, FACTOR, LINE, NEWPEN, NUMBER, PLOT, PLOTS, SCALE, SYMBOL, and WHERE can use any of the device libraries provided that the CalComp-to-PLOT79 interface is loaded FIRST: @LOAD myprog.for,@PLT:CALP79,@PLT:lib.CMD @CSAVE myprog
The software system is maintained in several directories. The
important ones are as follows:
PLT: - System directory containing working libraries and command files.
APS:<BEEBE.PLOT79> - Master directory containing test libraries and
command files.
APS:<BEEBE.PLOT79.CORE> - CORE graphics routines.
APS:<BEEBE.PLOT79.DEMO> - assorted demonstration programs.
APS:<BEEBE.PLOT79.ONE> - PLOT79 routines.
APS:<BEEBE.PLOT79.UTILITY> - Assorted utility routines.
These directories have public read access, and users are welcome to
inspect them to see how the system is typically used. There are a
number of demonstration main programs, named DEMxx in
APS:<BEEBE.PLOT79.DEMO>, and copies of their output plots may be found
in the manual "<PLOT79> Demonstration Programs, Vols. 1 and 2".
The libraries on APS:<BEEBE.PLOT79> are TEST libraries, and no
guarantee is extended that the routines that they contain are in
working order. Users should normally reference the PLT: directory for
libraries which will be supported to work as advertised.
Extensive documentation for <PLOT79> may be found in the manuals "A
User's Guide to <PLOT79>" and "<PLOT79> Demonstration Programs, Vols. 1
and 2".
For simple line drawings, an executable main program, GRAPH, has been placed on the system. Versions are available for the various plot devices currently supported and are described in HELP file on GRAPH, and in more detail in the UHELP file (do @UHELP GRAPH). GRAPH has a large number of options, all of which take reasonable default values. In the simplest case, all that it requires is a set of X and Y coordinates, the number of data points, two axis labels, and a graph title. Features such as Greek letters, high-quality fonts, logarithmic axes, data scaling and interpolation, scatter diagrams, line dashing, variable markers, integration, differentiation, averaging, and histogramming are among those supported. There is an experimental 3-D version of GRAPH, which is described in the HELP file GRAPH3.
A powerful and easy-to-use pie chart facility is available (@HELP PIECHT, or @UHELP PIECHT).
To facilitate automatic loading from the libraries, command files have
been established in PLT: for each of the devices currently supported.
They may be used as follows.
@LOAD myprog.for,@PLT:libname
@CSAVE myprog
@myprog filespecs
where "libname" is one of the entries in the following table:
======= =======================================================
Library Display Device
======= =======================================================
CALP79 CalComp plot system interface to PLOT79
DMP42 Houston Instrument DMP-42 single-pen D-size vector
plotter
PT1LIB Tektronix-4010 storage tube and various graphics
retrofit terminals
PT2LIB DEC VT240 interface
PT3LIB Tektronix 4663 flat bed 2-pen vector plotter
PT4LIB Tektronix-4014 storage tube and various graphics
retrofit terminals
PT5LIB Tektronix-4025 bit-mapped CRT display
PT7LIB HP 7270 2-pen plotter
PTALIB ADM-3A+ graphics terminal
PTBLIB BBN BitGraph high-resolution bit-mapped terminal
PTCLIB UUCC CalComp-90x high-resolution 4-pen drum vector
plotter. Once the plot file has been constructed, it
must be copied to magnetic tape in a special format.
This will normally be coordinated through the DEC-20
operators. A HELP file called PLTAPE describes the
necessary procedures.
PTDLIB Houston Instrument DMP-L 8-pen flat-bed vector plotter
PTELIB Epson MX-80 dot-matrix graphics printer
PTFLIB Form & Substance Microangelo bit-mapped CRT display
PTGLIB DEC GIGI and VT240 interface
PTHLIB Houston Instrument HIPLOT incremental flat bed
single-pen plotter
PTJLIB Chromatics 4x00 CRT display
PTKLIB Imagen 8/300 laser printer Impress vector graphics
PTLLIB DEC Letterprinter 100 dot-matrix graphics printer (code
sharing with Printronix Library)
PTMLIB CORE METAFILE virtual graphics device
PTNLIB PCP LaserImage 2000 laser printer (tiny HPGL subset)
PTQLIB MPI Sprinter dot-matrix graphics printer (code sharing
with Printronix Library)
PTRLIB Ramtek-6211 color bit-mapped graphics display
PTSLIB CalComp-Sanders Model 84 8-pen flat-bed vector plotter
PTTLIB Toshiba P-1351 dot-matrix graphics printer
PTULIB Canon LBP-8 A2 laser printer
PTVLIB Intecolor VHR19 color terminal
PTWLIB C-Itoh Prowriter dot-matrix graphics printer
PTXLIB Printronix-300/600 dot-matrix graphics printer
PTYLIB Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet laser printer
PTZLIB Apple LaserWriter laser printer
======= =======================================================
The listing and plot files constructed by PTXLIB for the Printronix
printers can be printed directly by using the PRINT command (for the
Physics Printronix 600), or the P300 utility (for the Chemistry
Printronix 300):
@PRINT myprog.plt,myprog.lst/file:fortran
@P300
*Print file = myprog.plt
*Print file = myprog.lst
*Print file = ^Z
Attempts to print them on non-Printronix equipment will generate about
20 pages of garbage!
Main programs should include as the first executable statement a call
of the form
CALL SYSDEC (inputunitnumber,printunitnumber)
These will normally be 5 and 6. Unit 6 is used by <PLOT79> for its
output, and unit 99 for the plot. If SYSDEC is not called, the printed
output will appear on the file associated with unit 6 (usually
FOR06.DAT) and the plot on the file corresponding to unit 99 (usually
FOR99.DAT). On some devices, such as the UUCC CalComp plotter, the
METAFILE device, and the Printronix 300 line printer, it may be
IMPERATIVE to use SYSDEC, in order to have the plot file created with
the correct format.
The file names to be used may be supplied on the command line, in a
command file, or in response to prompts to the terminal or batch job,
as described in the HELP file on FORTIO.
SLIDES is a program which can be used to prepare simple annotated drawings and slides interactively or in batch without having to write a program to do it. It also has the ability to include plot files produced by other programs (see TEKTRONIX-VECTOR-FILES and @HELP TKVECS) anywhere on the plot. This makes it possible to add fancier labelling and legends to plots which otherwise do not have them. See @HELP SLIDES and @UHELP SLIDES for more information.
All of the CRT devices, and most of the pen plotters, use a common terminal I/O facility called TKIO. The entry points in this package are not relevant to users, but three features are noteworthy. First, the plot will be directed to a file defined by the logical name PLOTFILE: (or CRT:); usually this will be TTY:, but may be a disk file. If the logical name HARDCOPY: is defined to point to a file, a copy of the PLOTFILE: (or CRT:) output will go to it as well. E.g. DEFINE PLOTFILE: TTY: DEFINE HARDCOPY: FOO.CRT Second, storage tubes (Tektronix 401x terminals) require padding characters (NUL's) after screen clear and move commands; most others do not. If you know that you are not plotting on a storage tube terminal, you can request that the padding characters be discarded by defining the logical names PLOTFILE_NUL: (or CRT_NUL:) and HARDCOPY_NUL:. This makes the plot files smaller and decreases the plotting time. The definition of these logical names is not used, just the fact that they are defined or not; thus you can do DEFINE PLOTFILE_NUL: NUL: Third, unless you are doing interactive input while a graph is being drawn, the immediate output of plot commands can be changed to more efficient buffered output by defining the logical names PLOTFILE_BUF: (or CRT_BUF:) and HARDCOPY_BUF:, as for example DEFINE PLOTFILE: NUL: DEFINE HARDCOPY: NUL: Buffering is always automatically selected for these files if they are directed to a non-terminal device.
A plot file conversion program exists for converting Tektronix 4010 and 4014 vector files to plot files for other devices (@HELP TKTOPX), and to a human (and machine) readable vector file (@HELP TKVECS). The file produced by TKVECS can used by the PLOTFILE command in SLIDES (@HELP SLIDES or @UHELP SLIDES).