Release notes and current issues


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Manual page for Release_notes_and_current_issues(PL)
  • Correspondence: scg@jax.org
  • Download page
  • Latest version of this page (ploticus.sourceforge.net)
  • Upgrading from an old version? Check the list of changes that could break old scripts.



    Late fixes and issues arising since latest release:

    - See also the ploticus discussion group



    Version 2.11 - Released May __, 2003

    • New - SWF (flash) support - contributed by Bill Traill

    • New - Popup text bubbles can be displayed when the mouse pointer hovers over data points when viewing ploticus-generated images in a web browser. Support for both scripts and prefabs. Accomplished using client-side imagemaps, with or without a clickable URL. Click here to see an example.

    • Fixed - libploticus API - now supports multiple plot jobs within one OS process.

    • New - proc vector - windbarbs support contributed by Andrew Phillips

    • New - proc categories - supersedes specification of categories from within proc areadef. Categories are an entity independent of plotting area or current data set.

    • New - proc processdata - new actions segment and segmentb

    • New - proc bars - new attributes exactcolorfield, constantlen, constantloc

    • New - clickmap support for proc rect

    • New - axis - new attribute stublen

    • New - pl command line - new option -echo to display interpreted, fully expanded script lines to stdout or stderr for debugging

    • New - proc curvefit - sets ploticus variables XFINAL and YFINAL

    • New - proc settings - new attribute svg_tagparms - allows you to insert additional attributes into the <svg> tag.. eg. <svg .. width="ww" height="hh">

    • Improved - libploticus API - improved the consistency of error return codes

    • Improved - clickmaps - labels and URLs now use malloced storage

    • Improved - categories - category labels now use malloced storage

    • Fixed - proc pie - percentages in labels weren't being converted to euro notation

    • Fixed - proc axis - very large scale increments were causing race (fix contributed by Dan Pelleg)

    • Workaround - proc usedata - fieldnames are lost when switching between data sets with proc usedata, due to a design flaw. As a workaround, field names can be respecified from within proc usedata.

    • Fixed - proc breakaxis - value now accepts category values containing embedded whitespace

    • Fixed - proc axis - self locating stubs were incorrect in Y axis

    • Fixed - proc getdata - seg fault involving rejected data rows and filter processing

    • Fixed - proc pie - color: auto was not working with legend

    • Fixed - unix builds now should handle dos text (script files and data files)

    • Fixed - proc axis - fixed axis stub increment "hours" and "minutes" support for datetime scaling & datetime w/ windowing

    • Changed - libploticus API - ploticus_begin() is no longer necessary.


    Release notes for earlier versions




    Summary of changes likely to break old scripts & applications

    Unless otherwise stated, ploticus versions are designed to be backward-compatible, meaning that a "well-behaved" script written for an earlier version of ploticus should work on any later version. However there are several exceptions:
    • version 2.10 - several obscure changes: config file parameters sid, gid, and filesizelimit dropped; number display format settings dropped from proc page; proc areadef catcompmethod: fuzzy no longer supported; proc processdata stack is now no by default, which might be an issue in scripts that use originaldata to access processdata result data set;

    • version 2.03 - pltab no longer supported.

    • version 2.03 - proc rect (old name proc bevelrect) - bevelsize must now be specified in order to get a bevelled rectangle.

    • version 2.02 - lines prefab - changed the way that the fill parameter works. Previously it had applied to all curves and line color was used. Now it is specified as a color, and separately for each curve (using fill2, fill3, and fill4). This will break any existing applications that use the lines prefab to render multiple filled curves.

    • version 2.00 - New script interpreter resulted in some script syntax changes. Concatenation of variables is done differently in #set and #if statements, #setifnotgiven replaces #declare soft, and some other minor issues. Here are the details.




    Areas of ongoing development

    I can proceed with Ploticus development as my "day job" allows. Because Ploticus is now covered under GPL, which allows code to be freely used in other GPL projects, I am posting here the areas that I hope to get to in the near future, so that other developers know where I am headed.
    • additional prefabs, eg cumulative percent, heatmap

    • overhaul of the gallery and examples, with more cross-references and an index

    • XML script syntax option - the plotting procs fit the xml model easily enough but not sure what to do about flow of control operators such as #if or #for .. #endloop.

    • proc axis - when doing tics but no stubs, need a way to range the tics

    • bee swarm plots


    Requested features not yet implemented

    • the ability to run as a persistent daemon and accept commands via named pipe
    • a method for automatic annotation placement, including avoidance of annotation, label, and plot object collisions.
    • more 3-D plots and effects
    • SVG - a way to display text messages on mouseover





  • data display engine  
    Copyright Steve Grubb


    Markup created by unroff 1.0,    May 20, 2003.