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Manual page for Release_notes_and_current_issues(PL)
Correspondence: scg@jax.org
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Latest version of this page (ploticus.sourceforge.net)
Upgrading from an old version? Check the list of changes that could break old scripts.
Version 2.04 - Released June 14, 2002
- New - proc lineplot - clip attribute
allows lineplot curve to be clipped to the plotting area.
- New - proc lineplot - sort attribute
for putting data into X order if necessary before plotting
- New - clickmap support for SVG.
- New - field names can now appear as legend labels. For the
lines,
stack, and
vbars prefabs this will be the default if no
name* parameters are specified and the data set contains a field name header.
This feature can be used in scripts in
proc bars,
proc lineplot,
proc curvefit
by specifying #usefname for the legendlabel.
Also available for proc scatterplot legendlabel.
- New - script syntax - a backslash can now be used to indicate start of leading whitespace
in a multiline text line
- New - script syntax - if the name of an #included file begins with a dollar-sign ($), it is
searched for in the ploticus prefabs directory. This provides a standard location for
included files. See gallery example loglog as an example.
- Docs - FAQ and dataformat man pages significantly
updated; a new page about pre-press work also available.
- Improved - config file errors now logged in CGI mode.
- Fix - EPS bounding box is now expressed in integers and use of (atend) is avoided except
when EPS is written to stdout. Problems had recently been reported with newer versions of GhostView
complaining about floating point values in the bounding box.
- Fix - CGI mode - QUERY_STRING used instead of REQUEST_URI
- Fix - proc axis - problems involving numerical axis stubs when a thousands separator
(eg. 100,000) is used. On win32, garbage was being appended. There was also incorrect
interaction with stub format, especially trailing format characters.
- Fix - dist prefab - title parameter wasn't working
- Fix - the $frommin() function (dealing with time data) was unstable.
- Fix - the limit for max # of categories (100 on each axis) was not being enforced, and
max char length of a category has been raised to 78.
- Fix - there was a slight amount of error in ploticus GD driver character widths.
- Fix - zero-length data cells causing subsequent spurious "unplottable value" messages
- Fix - proc pie max number of slices increased to 80.
- Fix - proc settings incorrect interaction with page break
- Fix - minor tics with datetime scaling not taking daily time window into consideration.
Summary of changes likely to break old scripts & applications
Unless otherwise stated, ploticus versions are designed to be backward-compatible, meaning
that a "well-behaved" script written for an earlier version of ploticus should work
on any later version. However there are several exceptions:
- version 2.03 - pltab no longer supported.
- version 2.03 - proc rect (old name proc bevelrect) - bevelsize must now be specified
in order to get a bevelled rectangle.
- version 2.02 - lines prefab - changed the way that the fill parameter works.
Previously it had applied to all curves and line color was used. Now it is specified
as a color, and separately for each curve (using fill2, fill3, and fill4). This will
break any existing applications that use the lines prefab to render multiple filled curves.
- version 2.00 - New script interpreter resulted in some script syntax changes.
Concatenation of variables is done differently in #set and #if statements,
#setifnotgiven replaces #declare soft, and some other minor issues.
Here are the details.
Areas of ongoing development
I can proceed with Ploticus development as my "day job" allows.
Because Ploticus is now covered under GPL, which allows code to
be freely used in other GPL projects, I am posting here the
areas that I hope to get to in the near future, so that other
developers know where I am headed.
- overhaul of the gallery and examples, with more cross-references and an index
- additional prefabs, eg cumulative percent
- XML script syntax option
- proc axis - when doing tics but no stubs, need a way to range the tics
- bug - only one processdata or tabulate result can be "stacked" .. should allow several
- bee swarm plots
Requested features not yet implemented
- the ability to run as a persistent daemon and accept commands via named pipe
- a method for automatic annotation placement, including avoidance of annotation, label,
and plot object collisions.
- ability to handle UNICODE and/or BIG-5 character sets
- more 3-D plots and effects
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 data display engine
Copyright Steve Grubb
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