changes

highlights of modifications for C-PLOT release 5.0

DESCRIPTION

These release notes describe the changes or new features made for C-PLOT release 5.0 as of April 22, 2013.

Function Prototypes Use ANSI/Standard C

All of the C-PLOT source code has been converted from the traditional (or K&R) C to ANSI/ISO Standard C. That conversion includes the prototypes for the user functions including the fitting functions.

Available As 64-Bit Binary

The C-PLOT package is now available as a 64-bit application. For a 64-bit distribution, local libraries linked with user functions will need to be 64-bit.

Command Line Editing

C-PLOT is now built with a command-line editing library to support command history, command recall, command editing and filename completion. In addition, the interactive type-5 fitting functions include the same command-line editing features. See the libedit help file for details.

New history Command

To go along with the new command-line editing feature, the C-PLOT prompt now includes the history number. A new command, history, displays the previous commands in a list. The command takes a numeric argument, which is the number of most recent commands to display. A negative value reverses the order of the commands.

A pdf Filter Is Included (Requires GhostScript)

Included with the standard graphics filter is a new pdf filter, which is a shell script that uses the standard C-PLOT psfilter to produce PostScript output and then has that output converted to pdf format using the freely available GhostScript package, available at www.ghostscript.com. Output can be either to a file or spooled directly to a printer. For automatic spooling, add a line similar to pdf: lpr to the file /usr/local/cplot/filters/spoolers. In addition to the options supported by psfilter, pdf recognizes the -landscape and -portrait options for orientation. The default orientation is landscape mode, which matches the default orientation of C-PLOT plots. Also, the pdf script always invokes psfilter with the -color option.

Updated Help Facility

If the shell environment variable PAGER is set, the help command will now send the output through that program for help files that are longer than a page. The normal value for PAGER is the utility less. If PAGER is not set, C-PLOT's built-in pager will be used.