PtPlot-5.10
Christopher Brooks, Edward A. Lee

Citation
Christopher Brooks, Edward A. Lee. "PtPlot-5.10". University of California, Berkeley, 26, January, 2015.

Abstract
Ptplot is a set of two dimensional signal plotters components written in Java with the following properties:

• Embeddable in applets or applications.
• Auto-ranging.
• Automatic or manual labeling of axes.
• Automatic or manual tick marks.
• Logarithmic axes.
• Live, animated plots.
• Infinite zooming.
• Various plot styles: connected lines, scatter plot, bars, etc.
• Various point styles: none, dots, points, and unique marks.
• Multiple data sets and a legend.
• Color or black and white plotting.
• Error bars.
• Editable plots.
• PlotML, and XML language for specifying plots.
• Compatibility with pxgraph, an older plotting program.

There is a set of demonstrations of the various capabilities. There are several ways to use the classes in the plot package.

• You can invoke an executable, ptplot, which is a shell script, to plot data on the local file system or on the network.
• You can invoke an executable, pxgraph, which is a shell script, to plot data that is stored in binary format compatible with the older program pxgraph.
• You can invoke a Java application, such as PlotMLApplication, by setting your CLASSPATH variable appropriately and using the java executable that is included in your Java distribution.
• You can reference an existing applet class, such as PlotMLApplet, in an HTML file. The applet parameters, such as dataurl, give the plot data and format information, either by referring to another file on the network, or by directly including the information. You do not even have to have Ptplot installed on your server, since you can always reference the Berkeley installation.
• You can create new classes derived from applet, frame, or application classes to customize your plots. This allows you to completely control the placement of plots on the screen, and to write Java code that defines the data to be plotted.

• PlotML is an XML extension for plot data. Its syntax is similar to that of HTML.
• An older, simpler syntax for plot data is also provided, although in the long term, that syntax is unlikely to be maintained (it will not necessarily be expanded to include new features). For simple data plots, however, it is adequate. Using it for applets has the advantage of making it possible to reference a slightly smaller jar file containing the code, which makes for more responsive applets.
• A binary file format used by the popular pxgraph program, an extension of xgraph, is supported by classes in the compat package. There is also a shell script, called pxgraph, which invokes these classes. Formatting information in pxgraph (and in the compat package) is provided by command-line arguments, rather than being included with the plot data, exactly as in the older program. Applets specify these command-line arguments as an applet parameter.

Electronic downloads

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Citation formats

• HTML

  Christopher Brooks, Edward A. Lee. <a
  href="http://www.terraswarm.org/pubs/479.html"
  ><i>PtPlot-5.10</i></a>, University of
  California, Berkeley, 26, January, 2015.

• Plain text

  Christopher Brooks, Edward A. Lee. "PtPlot-5.10".
  University of California, Berkeley, 26, January, 2015.

• BibTeX

  @software{BrooksLee15_PtPlot510,
      author = {Christopher Brooks and Edward A. Lee},
      title = {PtPlot-5.10},
      institution = {University of California, Berkeley},
      day = {26},
      month = {January},
      year = {2015},
      abstract = {Ptplot is a set of two dimensional signal plotters
                components written in Java with the following
                properties: <ul> <li> Embeddable in applets or
                applications. <li> Auto-ranging. <li> Automatic or
                manual labeling of axes. <li> Automatic or manual
                tick marks. <li> Logarithmic axes. <li> Live,
                animated plots. <li> Infinite zooming. <li>
                Various plot styles: connected lines, scatter
                plot, bars, etc. <li> Various point styles: none,
                dots, points, and unique marks. <li> Multiple data
                sets and a legend. <li> Color or black and white
                plotting. <li> Error bars. <li> Editable plots.
                <li> PlotML, and XML language for specifying
                plots. <li> Compatibility with pxgraph, an older
                plotting program. </ul> <p> There is a set of <a
                href="http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/java/ptplot5.10/ptolemy/plot/demo/">demonstrations</a>
                of the various capabilities. There are several
                ways to use the classes in the plot package. <ul>
                <li> You can invoke an executable, <i>ptplot</i>,
                which is a shell script, to plot data on the local
                file system or on the network. <li> You can invoke
                an executable, <i>pxgraph</i>, which is a shell
                script, to plot data that is stored in binary
                format compatible with the older program pxgraph.
                <li> You can invoke a Java application, such as
                PlotMLApplication, by setting your CLASSPATH
                variable appropriately and using the
                <code>java</code> executable that is included in
                your Java distribution. <li> You can reference an
                existing applet class, such as PlotMLApplet, in an
                HTML file. The applet parameters, such as
                <i>dataurl</i>, give the plot data and format
                information, either by referring to another file
                on the network, or by directly including the
                information. You do not even have to have Ptplot
                installed on your server, since you can always
                reference the Berkeley installation. <li> You can
                create new classes derived from applet, frame, or
                application classes to customize your plots. This
                allows you to completely control the placement of
                plots on the screen, and to write Java code that
                defines the data to be plotted. </ul> <p> <ul>
                <li> PlotML is an XML extension for plot data. Its
                syntax is similar to that of HTML. <li> An older,
                simpler syntax for plot data is also provided,
                although in the long term, that syntax is unlikely
                to be maintained (it will not necessarily be
                expanded to include new features). For simple data
                plots, however, it is adequate. Using it for
                applets has the advantage of making it possible to
                reference a slightly smaller jar file containing
                the code, which makes for more responsive applets.
                <li> A binary file format used by the popular
                pxgraph program, an extension of xgraph, is
                supported by classes in the <i>compat</i> package.
                There is also a shell script, called
                <i>pxgraph</i>, which invokes these classes.
                Formatting information in pxgraph (and in the
                compat package) is provided by command-line
                arguments, rather than being included with the
                plot data, exactly as in the older program.
                Applets specify these command-line arguments as an
                applet parameter. </ul>},
      URL = {http://terraswarm.org/pubs/479.html}
  }
  

Posted by Christopher Brooks on 26 Jan 2015.
Groups: tools