Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ucdavis!ucdavis.ucdavis.edu!kwok From: kwok@iris.ucdavis.edu (Conrad &) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: fig as standard? Message-ID:Date: 23 Sep 88 06:06:35 GMT References: <3562@boulder.Colorado.EDU> Sender: uucp@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu Distribution: na Organization: University of California at Davis. Lines: 38 In-reply-to: hartzell@boulder.Colorado.EDU's message of 19 Sep 88 22:22:01 GMT In article <3562@boulder.Colorado.EDU> hartzell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (George Hartzell) writes: I have some undergraduate students who are going to work on a simple package for doing x-y graphs and histograms. Ultimately there will be a menu driven interface, a batch and/or custom (pic like) language interface, and a library of routines that can be used for other applications. It seems to me that there are now several graphics editors that use the "fig format", so it makes sense to me to use it if possible. This has the advantage that other people have already written the translators, etc... What I don't know is whether there are any significant drawbacks to using it. Some degree of device independence is important (different flavors of laser printers, etc...), and it is important that we be able to include these figures in troff and TeX documents. The fig format itself is quite feasible but the fig programs (FIG 1.4, FIG 1.4-TFX or xfig) do not understand or use all the parameters. For example, the fig file created by the fig programs always set the resolution to 80 dpi. I don't think they can handle any resolution other than 80 dpi (or they may just ignore that field). However, 80 dpi may not be sufficient for drawing graphs. On the other hand, I believe most programs in Transfig can handle any resolution. A graph drawing program may have to operate in two modes. A draft mode to create a fig file in 80 dpi such that it can be previewed or edited by fig programs and a high resolution mode to create fig file for final output. I have found the transfig package (from june.cs.washington.edu), which has some documentation about the fig stuff. Is there anything else that I would find helpful. Does anyone have any helpful hints? The latest version of Transfig can be found on svax.cs.cornell.edu. This version includes support for TFX (TransFig eXtension) and fig2epic. --Conrad internet: kwok@iris.ucdavis.edu csnet: kwok@ucd.csnet csnet: kwok%iris.ucdavis.edu@csnet.relay uucp: {ucbvax, uunet, ... }!ucdavis!iris!kwok