.PU
.TH QUICKPLOT 1
.SH NAME
quickplot \- quick interactive 2-D plotter with zoom and value display
.SH SYNOPSIS
.ll +8
.B quickplot
[
.B OPTIONS
] [
.B X-OPTIONS
] [
.I file1
[
.I file2
]
.B ...
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B quickplot
plots the named data files to any number of
two dimensional plots.
.PP
.B To zoom in: 
While moving the pointer in the plot window,
press and hold the middle mouse button
and then release the button when the zoom box is where
you want it.
.B To zoom back to the previous zoom level:
press the  middle mouse button 
and pull the zoom box from inside the plot window
to one edge of the plot window and then release the button.
.B To zoom back to the full plot of all the data:
press the middle mouse button and
pull the zoom box from inside the plot window
to two edges (at a corner) of the plot window,
and then release the button.
The
left mouse button
can be pressed in the plot window to show linearly interpolated 
function plot values.
The right mouse button can be pressed in the plot window to show 
values at any point (including non-plot values and plot values).
.PP
The default input
file format is an ASCII file with any number of fields (values) for each
data point. 
Each field must be delimited by a space, tab, comma or any combination
and/or number of these characters.
Each data point (set of values) must be separated by a new line character.
.PP
For example the data:
.PP
.RS +.8i
.nf
0.0 1 1e-5
.br
0.1 2 3.1e-5
.br
0.2 3 4.5e-5
.br
0.3 4 7.7e-5
.br
0.4 5 8.2e-5
.fi
.RE
.PP
has 3 fields and 5 points.
.PP
If no input file is given on the command line
.B quickplot
will read data from standard input.
.PP
When one field of data in loaded by
.B quickplot
an additional field
will be generated that is a count, 0 1 2 3 4 ... and so on, of
the one loaded field.
The default plot in this case will be a function plot of the one
loaded field VS the generated count field.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B -a \fRor\fP --no-axes
\fR
Don't show border axes in the plot window. By default
.B quickplot
will display value labeled axes at the edges of the plot window
if there is one plot or all the plots are on the same scale.
.TP
.B -b \fRor\fP --binary
\fR
Input data in the binary format: The binary format is one int, that is
equal to the number of fields (values) in each data point, followed
by the data as doubles one point at a time. For example if your data file
has 3 fields the data could be represented like this: 3 x0 y0 z0
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 x3 y3 z3 x4 y4 z4 \&..., if there are 5 points, that's
one int followed by 15 doubles. By default the input data format is ASCII.
.TP
.B -f \fILIST\fP \fRor\fP --function-plot=\fILIST\fP
\fR
List of function plots.  Example:
.B quickplot -f \fR"\fB1 0 2 1\fR"\fB
will plot data field 1 VS 0 and 2 VS 1.  The independent variable in
a function plot must always be increasing. If the options
-f or --function-plot and
-p or --phase-plot are not used the default plots will be function plots 
of all fields but field 0 against field 0.
.TP
.B -h \fRor\fP --help
\fR
Display some help and then exit.
.TP
.B -l \fILIST\fP \fRor\fP --labels=\fILIST\fP
\fR
Label the fields in the fields in the value window with the strings in 
\fILIST\fP.
Example:
.B quickplot -l \fR"\fBtime voltage current\fR"\fB
will label the first field as "time",
the second field as "voltage" and the third field as "current".
That is assuming that the label separator is a space.  Use option -L
to change the label separator character from the default of space.
.TP
.B -n \fRor\fP --no-lines
\fR
Plot without lines and show just the points.
.TP
.B -p \fILIST\fP \fRor\fP --phase-plot=\fILIST\fP
\fR
List of phase plots.  Example:
.B quickplot -p \fR"\fP1 0 2 1\fR"\fP
will plot data field 1 VS 0 and 2 VS 1.  The independent variable in
a phase plot doesn't have to be always increasing like in a function
plot.
.TP
.B -s \fRor\fP --same-scale
\fR
Plot all plots on the same scale.
.TP
.B -v \fRor\fP --verbose
\fR
Print more information to standard error.
.TP
.B -B \fRor\fP --black-and-white
\fR
Display the plots in black and white.
.TP
.B -L \fICHAR\fP \fRor\fP --label-separator=\fICHAR\fP
\fR
Change the label separator to the character \fICHAR\fP.  See option -l.
.TP
.B -N \fRor\fP --no-pipe
\fR
Don't read data in from standard input.
By default
.B quickplot
looks for standard input, but if a 
.I datafilename
is given it stops looking
for data from standard input in some short amount of time.
This option will cause
.B quickplot
to not look for data from standard input at all.
This option will over ride the
.B -P
or
.B --pipe
option. 
This option was needed to keep
.B quickplot
from choking on unintended input, which would cause
.B quickplot
to fail to run.
.TP
.B -P \fRor\fP --pipe
\fR
Read data in from standard input. If no
.I datafilename
is given this will be the default.
This option will force
.B quickplot
to wait for data from standard input indefinitely.
By default
.B quickplot
looks for standard input, but if a 
.I datafilename
is given it stops looking
for data from standard input in some short amount of time.
.TP
.B -R \fRor\fP --read-labels
\fR
Read in the labels from the files from first line that is not skipped.
This will only work for ASCII input files.  Option -l will override
this option.  If this option is given along with option -l
the labels will not be read from the files, but one additional line
will be skipped in reading the data from the files.
.TP
.B -S \fINUM\fP \fRor\fP --skip-lines=\fINUM\fP
\fR
Skip the first
.I NUM
lines from all input. If the -b or --binary option is given the first
.I NUM
data points will be skipped.
.TP
.B -V \fRor\fP --version
\fR
Print version number, compile date, who compiled this
.B quickplot
and
about and 
some license information to standard output.
If you want just the version number try for example:
\fB quickplot --version | awk '/version: / {print $2}'\fR
.TP
.B -X \fRor\fP --no-pixmap
\fR
Don't load a piXmap of the first view of the plot. By default
.B quickplot
loads the first zoom level display into a X pixmap, so that it can draw it
faster in all forthcoming redraws of the first zoom level.

.SH X-OPTIONS
.B quickplot
can be started with the following X options:
.PP
.TP
.B -bg \fIcolor\fP \fRor\fP -background \fIcolor\fP
\fR
Set application background color to \fIcolor\fP.
.TP
.B -fg \fIcolor\fP \fRor\fP -foreground \fIcolor\fP
\fR
Set application foreground color to \fIcolor\fP.
.TP
.B -bd \fIcolor\fP \fRor\fP -bordercolor \fIcolor\fP
\fR
Set application bordercolor color to \fIcolor\fP.
.TP
.B -bw \fIwidth\fP \fRor\fP -borderwidth \fIwidth\fP
\fR
Set application borderwidth to \fIwidth\fP.
.TP
.B -display \fIdisplayname\fP
\fR
Set application X display to \fIdisplayname\fP.
.TP
.B -fn \fIfont\fP \fRor\fP -font \fIfont\fP
Set application font to \fIfont\fP.  Run \fIxlsfonts\fP to see a list of
available fonts.
.TP
.B -geometry \fIgeometry\fP
\fR
Set application geometry.  For example:
.RS +1.3i
.nf
prompt% quickplot -geometry 500x400+0+0 datafile
.fi
.RE
.TP
.B -iconic
Initial application as an icon.
.TP
.B -name \fIname\fP
\fR
Set the application resource name to \fIname\fP.
.TP
.B -title \fItitle\fP
\fR
Pass the title \fItitle\fP to the window manager.
.TP
.B -rv \fRor\fP -reverse
\fR
Reverse the video, i.e. set black to white and vice-versa.
This is the default. Lance likes it this way.
.TP
.B +rv
\fR
Don't reverse the video.
.TP
.B -selectionTimeout \fITime\fP
\fR
Set selection timeout time to \fITime\fP in milliseconds.
.TP
.B -synchronous
Enable synchronous behavior.
.TP
.B +synchronous
\fR
Disable synchronous behavior.
.TP
.B -xnllanguage \fIlanguage\fP
\fR
Set application national language to \fIlanguage\fP.
.TP
.B -xrm \fIresourceString\fP
\fR
Set the resource \fIresourceString\fP.
.TP
.B -xtsessionID \fIID\fP
\fR
Set the SM session ID to \fIID\fP. I don't know what this is.
.SH AUTHOR
Lance Arsenault, quickplot@kachinatech.com, 
first released: February 1998, last update of this man page: February 28, 1999.
\fR
Quickplot home page: http://www.KachinaTech.COM/~quickplot/
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR gnuplot (1),
.BR test_data (1)
.SH COPYRIGHT
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2
of the License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
.SH BUGS
Send bug reports to:  quickplot@kachinatech.com