.ig >>
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
<!--
        A:link{text-decoration:none}
        A:visited{text-decoration:none}
        A:active{text-decoration:none}
-->
</STYLE>
<title>ploticus: release notes and current issues</title>
<body bgcolor=D0D0EE vlink=0000FF>
<br>
<br>
<center>
<table cellpadding=2 bgcolor=FFFFFF width=550 ><tr>
<td>
  <table cellpadding=2 width=550><tr>
  <td><br><h2>Release notes and current issues</h2></td>
  <td align=right>
  <small>
  <a href="../doc/Welcome.html"><img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br>
  <a href="../doc/Welcome.html">Welcome</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
  <a href="../gallery/index.html">Gallery</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
  <a href="../doc/Contents.html">Handbook</a> 
  <td></tr></table>
</td></tr>
<td>
<br>
<br>
.>>

.TH Release_notes_and_current_issues PL "05-MAR-2002   PL ploticus.sourceforge.net"

.ig >>

<li> <a href="../doc/Problems.html">Correspondence</a>: scg@jax.org
<li> <a href="../doc/Download.html">Download page</a>
<li> <a href="http://ploticus.sourceforge.net/doc/Versions.html">Latest version of this page</a> (ploticus.sourceforge.net)
<br>
<br>
Considering upgrading from an older version?
There is now a <a href="#breakers">
summary of several changes that could break old scripts and applications.
</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2> Version 2.03 - released on 4 March '02</h2>
This version includes many new features and bug fixes.  
<ul>
<li> Fixed bug - <a href="cgi.html">cgi mode</a> - CGI SECURITY RISK - command line arguments 
that were insecure or inappropriate in CGI mode are now disabled when in CGI mode.
<br>
<br>
<li> <b>pltab</b> has been discontinued.
<br>
<br>
<li> Improvement - <a href="cgi.html">cgi mode</a> - If -debug is specified all diagnotistic 
and error msg output automatically goes to specific files.  This should simplify debugging in
CGI mode.
<br>
<br>
<li> New feature - <a href="clickmap.html">client-side imagemaps</a>
<br>
<br>
<li> Improvement - proc datesettings has been expanded and renamed to <a href="settings.html">proc settings</a>.  
This proc can now be used to make most settings that previously required a config file.
<br>
<br>
<li> Improvement - proc bevelrect has been renamed to <a href="rect.html">proc rect</a>, and
should now be thought of as the preferred way to draw arbitrary shaded rectangles.  
<br>
<br>
<li> Changed: <tt>#proc endproc</tt> may now be written <tt>#endproc</tt>.  The old
syntax will also continue to work.
<br>
<br>
<li> New feature - <a href="areadef.html">proc areadef</a> categories - new modifier <tt>selectrows</tt> which
allows categories to be taken from data field based on a conditional expression.
<br>
<br>
<li> New attribute - <a href="processdata.html">proc processdata</a> - <tt>outfile</tt>
allows result to be written to a file.  This came up because a user wanted to perform
arithmetic (a la getdata filter) to processdata result, and there was no way to do it.
<br>
<br>
<li> New feature - <a href="annotate.html">proc annotate</a> can now do drop shadows,
beveling, and colored backing box with or without outline.
<br>
<br>
<li> New attribute - <a href="getdata.html">proc getdata</a> - <tt>pf_fieldnames</tt>
for defining post-filter fieldnames.
<br>
<br>
<li> Improvement - max number of legend entries raised to 80 (was 30).
<br>
<br>
<li> New attribute - <a href="config.html">config</a> and <a href="settings.html">proc settings</a> - 
<tt>numberspacerthreshold</tt> controls when thousands separator characters begin to appear.
<br>
<br>
<li> New <a href="variables.html">system variable</a> - CM_UNITS - indicates if working in
-cm mode or not.
<br>
<br>
<li> Improvement - special #include statements that refer to the prefabs directory (filename beginning 
with $) may be used any time, not just with -prefab.  This will make it easier to copy prefab scripts
into other directories for customization.
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - pl crashes when reading any config file.  
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - prefabs were not working in CGI mode.  
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - script lines longer than 255 were overflowing.  The published script line
length limit is 3000.  
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - cm mode - cm conversion was not being done on ploticus variables that hold 
generated absolute coordinate values (eg AREALEFT).  Position of prefab titles was affected.
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - proc processdata - count action - the counts for highest and lowest category were off by 1.  
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - problem with date formats containing dashes (eg.
dd-mmm-yyyy) when setting up plotting area and data space.
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - number display - large number 000 separators interacting incorrectly with stub formatting.
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - times - the displayable seconds component of time values was being shown 
as a value between 0.0 -> 1.0 rather than 0 -> 60.
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - times - data values having a seconds component > 59.0 (eg. 59.3) were considered invalid.
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed & improved - times - noon and/or midnight were displayed incorrectly when <tt>hha</tt> format
was being used.  Noon is now represented as <tt>12n</tt> and midnight is represented as <tt>12am</tt>.
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bug - proc legend - incomplete legend when specifyorder has more entries than the number of legend entries.
<br>
<br>
<li> Fixed bugs - cm mode - certain objects were too small in -cm mode, including default prefab plot size,
various hard-coded prefab sizes, and default symbol size.
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<h3><a href="Changelog.html">Release notes for earlier versions</a></h3>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name=breakers></a>
<h2>Summary of changes likely to break old scripts & applications</h2>
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:
<ul>
<li> <b>version 2.03</b> - pltab no longer supported.
<br>
<br>
<li> <b>version 2.03</b> - proc rect (old name proc bevelrect) - bevelsize must now be specified
in order to get a bevelled rectangle.
<br>
<br>
<li> <b>version 2.02</b> - lines prefab - changed the way that the <tt> fill </tt> 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.
<br>
<br>
<li> <b>version 2.00</b> - New script interpreter resulted in some script syntax changes.
Concatenation of variables is done differently in <b>#set</b> and <b>#if</b> statements,
<b>#setifnotgiven</b> replaces <b>#declare soft</b>, and some other minor issues.
<a href="changes20.html">Here are the details.</a> 
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2>Areas of ongoing development</h2>
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.
<ul>
<li> overhaul of the gallery and examples, with more cross-references and an index
<br><br>
<li> additional prefabs
<br><br>
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<h2>Requested features not yet implemented</h2>
<ul>
<li>should be able to automatically use field name headers as legend labels
<li>the ability to run as a persistent daemon and accept commands via named pipe
<li>proc axis - when doing tics but no stubs, we need a ticrange attribute to range the tics
<li>a method for automatic annotation placement, including avoidance of annotation, label,
and plot object collisions.
</ul>
<br>
<br>


.>>

.ig >>
<br>
<br>
</td></tr>
<td align=right>
<a href="../doc/Welcome.html">
<img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br><small>data display engine &nbsp; <br>
<a href="../doc/Copyright.html">Copyright Steve Grubb</a>
<br>
<br>
<center>
<img src="../gallery/all.gif">
</center>
</td></tr>
</table>
.>>
