Re: [MacPerl] Graphics generation

[schinder@pjstoaster.pg.md.us (Paul Schinder)]

Matthias Ulrich Neeracher <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch> wrote:
} In message <Pine.GSO.3.93.960603164734.28390B-100000@cass26> you write:
} > On UNIX machines I've been using something pretty wonderful called PGPerl
} > which is a perl module that lets you call PGPlot from within Perl. This gives
} > beautiful results, but I don't think its been ported to Macs yet.
} 
} Porting PGPerl might be easier than porting PGPlot, whatever that is.

Yes, but utterly useless without PGPlot.

PGPlot is a high quality graphics suite, quite popular in astronomy.
It's designed to be used by a series of subroutine calls from a high
level language, usually Fortran (but I believe there's also a C
interface). I've installed it on my Unix boxen, but because I already
know how to get done what I want to do with IDL or gnuplot, I haven't
learned it.

PGPerl is a Perl frontend to PGPlot, so that you can write your graphics
routines in Perl and get them up and running more quickly.  I've got it
and have run the tests.  It works just fine, but you need PGPlot itself
for it to do anything.

Porting PGPlot/PGPerl would require a compiler at the very least (and
maybe both a Fortran and C compiler; it's been a long time since I
installed it so I've forgotten whether gcc or f77 was doing the work.)

If you're interested in serious graphics on a Mac, there are a lot of
possibilities.  A colleague of mine swears by Igor Pro.  If free
software is what you're after, Dave Schooley's gnuplot port is quite good.

} 
} Matthias
} 
} -----
} Matthias Neeracher   <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>   http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri
}   "And that's why I am going to turn this world upside down, and make
}    of it a fire so *bright* that someone real will notice"
}                                 -- Vernor Vinge, _Tatja Grimm's World_
} 
---
--------
Paul J. Schinder
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
Code 693, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA
schinder@pjstoaster.pg.md.us