Newsgroups: comp.lang.apl
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From: sam@csi.jpl.nasa.gov (Sam Sirlin)
Subject: J and graphics
Message-ID: <1993Apr12.155812.27476@csi.jpl.nasa.gov>
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Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1993 15:58:12 GMT
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I'm replying here to mail from Peter deVoil. Since his mail bounces
(both to zeus and helios), and it's possibly of general interest:

Long ago I started writing graphics routines for APL on an IBM 360,
using tektronix 4013 monitors. I wrote a simple graph routine that did
automatic scaling very useful in various work I've done (dynamics and
controls). When J came along I wanted to add graphics, and noticed
that xterm has a tektronix emulation mode. Voila. I translated my old
routines into J (harder than I thought) and now have graphics. I think
this should work for you as well.  Of course since I'm doing 4010
emulation, there's no color... The script is available via ftp from
csi.jpl.nasa.gov

I once tried gnuplot and didn't think much of it (seemed to complex to
use for what it did), but perhaps it has gotten better.  My routines,
while simple to use, don't do nearly as much as Matlab or Mathematica.
Hence the idea of making an interface with a good pd graphics package
has always appealed to me. But what I have works and I also don't have
that much time... Have you used gnuplot? Do you think it's worth some
effort to interface with J?

-- 
Sam Sirlin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory         sam@kalessin.jpl.nasa.gov

