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<title>ploticus: ploticus handbook - contents</title>
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  <td><br><h2>Ploticus Handbook - Contents</h2></td>
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  <small>
  <a href="../doc/Welcome.html"><img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br>
  <a href="../doc/Welcome.html">Welcome</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
  <a href="../gallery/index.html">Gallery</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
  <a href="../doc/Contents.html">Handbook</a> 
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.TH Ploticus_Handbook_-_Contents PL "21-MAY-2003   PL ploticus.sourceforge.net"

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<b>GENERAL INFO</b><br>
<ul>
<a href="Welcome.html">Introduction</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="Faq.html#gettingstarted">Quick start</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="Problems.html">Troubleshooting & support</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="Faq.html">FAQ</a><br>
<a href="Versions.html">What's new</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ploticus">Ploticus newsgroup</a> &nbsp; &nbsp; 
<a href="../gallery/index.html">Gallery of examples</a><br>
<br>
<a href="Welcome.html">Uses:</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="dynamic.html">On-the-fly</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="web.html">Web pages</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="cgi.html">CGI</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="clickmap.html">Clickmaps & mouseover</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="svg.html">SVG</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="swf.html">SWF</a> 
<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="interactive.html">Interactive</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="paper.html">Hard copy</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="prepress.html">Pre-press</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="slides.html">Slides</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="posters.html">Posters</a>
</ul>

<br>
<b>MANUAL PAGES</b><br>
Ploticus may be invoked using the <b>pl command</b>, or by linking to <b>libploticus</b>.
<ul>
<a href="pl.1.html">pl(1)</a> including descriptions of command line arguments
<br><br>
<a href="api.html">libploticus(3)</a>  C language API
</ul>

<br>
<b>IMPORTANT BASICS</b><br>
<ul>
<a href="dataformat.html">Plot data file formats</a>
<br><br>
<a href="scaleunits.html">Scaling and various types of plottable units</a>
</ul>

<br>
<b>APPROACHES</b>
<br>
There are two approaches to using ploticus:
<a href="prefabs.html">Prefabs</a> are easy to use and a quick way to produce certain standard types of graphs.
<a href="#scripts">Ploticus scripts</a> offer greater power and flexibility, but have a steeper learning curve.
<br>


<br>
<b>PREFABS</b><br>
<ul>
<a href="prefabs.html">Intro</a><br>
<a href="prefab_stdparms.html">Standard prefab parameters</a><br>
<a href="prefab_chron.html">chron</a> - display chronological data<br>
<a href="prefab_dist.html">dist</a> - frequency distribution histograms<br>
<a href="prefab_lines.html">lines</a> - line plots<br>
<a href="prefab_pie.html">pie</a> - pie graphs<br>
<a href="prefab_scat.html">scat</a> - scatterplots with correlations<br>
<a href="prefab_stack.html">stack</a> - stacked bar graphs<br>
<a href="prefab_vbars.html">vbars</a> - bar graphs<br>
<a href="prefab_draw.html">draw</a> - interpret ploticus draw commands<br>
<a href="prefab_multidist.html">multidist</a> - multiple, overlaid frequency distributions<br>
</ul>

<br>
<a name=scripts></a>
<b>SCRIPTS</b> 
<ul>
<a href="scripts.html">Introduction to scripts</a><br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="scripts.html#procs">Using procs and attributes; #proc, #procdef, #saveas, #clone</a><br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="scripts.html#syntax">Syntax and variables</a><br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="scripts.html#directives">Flow of control directives such as #set and #if</a><br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="plshellsql.html">Using #shell and #sql</a><br>
<b><a href="functions.html">Functions</a></b> - essential to getting the most out of ploticus scripts<br>
<a href="variables.html">Reserved variables</a><br>
<a href="../gallery/Listall.html">Script examples: &nbsp; Index</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="../thumbpng/Viewall.html">PNG thumbnails</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="../thumbnails/Viewall.html">GIF thumbnails</a>
<br>
<br>
<b>PLOTTING PROCS</b><br>
<a href="annotate.html">proc annotate</a> - add annotation<br>
<a href="areadef.html">proc areadef</a> - define a plotting area<br>
&nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="autorange.html">notes on automatic scaling</a><br>
<a href="axis.html"> proc axis (xaxis/yaxis)</a> - render an axis<br>
<a href="bars.html">proc bars</a> - bar graphs, histograms, error bars, floating bars, timelines<br>
<a href="categories.html">proc categories</a> - define a set of categories for an axis<br>
<a href="curvefit.html">proc curvefit</a> - generate a curve from data points<br>
<a href="drawcommands.html">proc drawcommands</a> - draw using command set<br>
<a href="getdata.html">proc getdata</a> - get or specify plot data<br>
<a href="legend.html">proc legend</a> - render a legend<br>
<a href="line.html">proc line</a> - draw arbitrary lines<br>
<a href="lineplot.html">proc lineplot</a> - produce a line plot<br>
<a href="page.html">proc page</a> - set page-wide attributes/ break page<br>
<a href="pie.html">proc pie</a> - produce a pie graph<br>
<a href="rangebar.html">proc rangebar</a> - produce a rangebar / boxplot<br>
<a href="rangesweep.html">proc rangesweep</a> - produce a range sweep<br>
<a href="rect.html">proc rect</a> - draw an arbitrary rectangle <br>
<a href="scatterplot.html">proc scatterplot</a> - produce a scatterplot or grid or data point display<br>
<a href="settings.html">proc settings</a> - <b>overall settings</b> for units, notations, etc<br>
<a href="vector.html">proc vector</a> - vector plots<br>
<p>
<b>UTILITY PROCS</b><br>
<a href="breakaxis.html">proc breakaxis</a> - break an axis or bar, to display extreme values<br>
proc catslide - <i>mapped to <a href="categories.html">proc categories</a></i><br>
proc datesettings - <i>mapped to <a href="settings.html">proc settings</a></i><br>
<a href="defineunits.html">proc defineunits</a> - explicitly define scaling units<br>
<a href="import.html">proc import</a> - import an external PNG image file<br>
<a href="legendentry.html">proc legendentry</a> - define a legend entry explicitly<br>
proc originaldata - <i>mapped to <a href="usedata.html">proc usedata</i><br>
<a href="print.html">proc print</a> - show outliers, contents of variables, etc.<br>
<a href="processdata.html">proc processdata</a> - process data set in various ways<br>
<a href="tabulate.html">proc tabulate</a> - perform tabulations & frequency distributions<br>
<a href="trailer.html">proc trailer</a> - specify data at end of script<br>
proc transform - <i>renamed as <a href="processdata.html">proc processdata</a></i><br>
<a href="usedata.html">proc usedata</a> - set the current data set for plotting<br>
</ul>
<br>
<b>ATTRIBUTES</b><br>
<ul>
<a href="attributetypes.html">Attribute types</a><br>
<a href="linedetails.html">Linedetails</a><br>
<a href="symboldetails.html">Symboldetails</a><br>
<a href="textdetails.html">Textdetails</a><br>
<a href="condex.html">Conditional expressions</a><br>
<a href="color.html">Colors</a><br>
<a href="fonts.html">Fonts</a><br>
<a href="dates.html">Dates</a><br>
<a href="times.html">Times</a><br>
</ul>
<br>
<b>APPENDIX</b><br>
<ul>
<a href="config.html">Ploticus configuration files</a><br>
<a href="nonunix.html">Notes for non-unix environments</a><br>
<a href="specialchars.html">Special characters</a><br>
<a href="limits.html">Program limitations</a><br>
<a href="Copyright.html">Copyright and permissions <img src="../doc/gpl.gif" border=0></a><br>
<a href="http://ploticus.sourceforge.net">Home page (ploticus.sourceforge.net)</a><br>
<a href="http://ploticus.sourceforge.net/doc/Download.html">Downloading the software</a><br>
<a href="Feedback.html">User comments and feedback</a><br>
<a href="Problems.html">Correspondence, troubleshooting, & bug reports</a><br>
</ul>
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<a href="../doc/Welcome.html">
<img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br><small>data display engine &nbsp; <br>
<a href="../doc/Copyright.html">Copyright Steve Grubb</a>
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