README
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GSEGrafix is a GNOME scientific and engineering plotting program.

Copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 Spencer A. Buckner
http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gsegrafix
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License

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, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

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.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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Development system

The latest version of GSEGrafix was developed and compiled on a Fedora-10
GNU/Linux Intel Pentium-4 system.
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Introduction

GSEGrafix is a GNOME application which uses an anti-aliased GNOME canvas for
creating scientific and engineering plots. The program is written in C and reads
ASCII parameter files and data files. The parameter files contain keywords and
corresponding arguments for specifying plot parameters (such as data file names,
data file formats, plot type, plot style, axis type, axis labels, etc).

GSEGrafix can make rectangular two-dimensional plots (with linear, semilog, or
loglog axes), histograms, polar-axis plots, and three-dimensional plots (with
linear axes). Three-dimensional plots include points, contour, color, and mesh
plots. Data for three-dimensional plots can also be used to create two-
dimensional plots using contour lines or color to represent values of a third
variable.

A menu bar at the top of the plot window allows users to save the plot to a
file, send the plot to a printer, copy the plot to the GNU/Linux clipboard,
change the axis limits of the plot, change the orientation of three-dimensional
plots, and display mouse coordinates in the lower left corner of the plot window
for two-dimensional plots. All plots include options to add a grid, legend,
text, and date-time string to the plot. Additional images can be added to a plot
by specifying image file names and desired locations on the plot. Rectangular
two-dimensional plots include zoom capabilities using the mouse to specify a
rectangle on the plot to expand.
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Help files

Details of the parameter files, data files, and operation of the program are
available from each of two help files, gsegrafix.xhtml and gsegrafix.xml. The
gsegrafix.xhtml file can be viewed with a web-browser (such as Firefox), and the
gsegrafix.xml file can be viewed with the gnome help browser, yelp. After
installation of the program the help files can be displayed from the command
line with either of the following commands:

   $ gsegrafix -h   or   $ gsegraf -h
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Examples

Eleven example plots, corresponding examples of Octave code or C code for
creating the data files, and corresponding parameter files are included in the
help files. Separate data files and parameter files are provided for Examples 1
and 7. These files can be copied and used to run the program. Links to these
files are included in the descriptions of these two examples in the help files.

If desired, these two example plots can be created after program compilation (as
described in the INSTALL file) but before program installation. The commands to
create these two example plots from the directory where program files are
extracted are:

   $ ./src/gsegraf ./help_files/sinc_param.txt

and

   $ ./src/gsegraf ./help_files/sinc3d_param.txt
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Installation

Instructions for extracting the program files from the compressed archive file,
configuring, compiling, installing, and removing the program are contained in
the INSTALL file.
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