Window(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Window(3)
NAME
PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window - A OO interface to PGPLOT windows
SYNOPSIS
perldl> use PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window
perldl> $win = pgwin(Device => '/xs');
perldl> $a = pdl [1..100]
perldl> $b = sqrt($a)
perldl> $win->line($b)
perldl> $win->hold()
perldl> $c = sin($a/10)*2 + 4
perldl> $win->line($c)
In the following documentation the commands are not shown in their OO versions. This is for historical reasons and should not cause too
much trouble.
DESCRIPTION
This package offers a OO interface to the PGPLOT plotting package. This is intended to replace the traditional interface in PDL::Graph-
ics::PGPLOT and contains interfaces to a large number of PGPLOT routines. Below the usage examples for each function tend to be given in
the non-OO version for historical reasons. This will slowly be changed, but in the meantime refer to the section on OO-interface below to
see how to convert the usage information below to OO usage (it is totally trivial).
PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window is an interface to the PGPLOT graphical libraries.
The list of currently availably methods:
imag - Display an image (uses pgimag()/pggray() as appropriate)
ctab - Load an image colour table
ctab_info - Get information about currently loaded colour table
line - Plot vector as connected points
points - Plot vector as points
errb - Plot error bars
cont - Display image as contour map
bin - Plot vector as histogram (e.g. bin(hist($data)) )
hi2d - Plot image as 2d histogram (not very good IMHO...)
poly - Draw a polygon
vect - Display 2 images as a vector field
text - Write text in the plot area
label_axes - Print axis titles
legend - Create a legend with different texts, linestyles etc.
cursor - Interactively read cursor positions.
circle - Draw a circle
ellipse - Draw an ellipse.
Device manipulation commands:
new - Construct a new output device
pgwin - Exported hook to new()
close - Close a PGPLOT output device.
focus - Set focus to the given device. This should normally be
done behind the scenes.
hold - Hold current plot window range - allows overlays etc.
release - Release back to autoscaling of new plot window for each
command.
held - Returns true if the graphics is held on the current
device.
env - Define a plot window, put on 'hold'.
panel - Move to a specified plot panel when several panels are
defined.
erase - Erase the current window (or panel).
options - Get the options set for the present output device.
id - The ID for the device.
device - The device type.
name - The window name.
Notes: $transform for image/cont etc. is used in the same way as the "TR()" array in the underlying PGPLOT FORTRAN routine but is, fortu-
nately, zero-offset. The transform() routine can be used to create this piddle.
For completeness: The transformation array connect the pixel index to a world coordinate such that:
X = tr[0] + tr[1]*i + tr[2]*j
Y = tr[3] + tr[4]*i + tr[5]*j
Variable passing and extensions
In general variables are passed to the pgplot routines by using "get_dataref" to get the reference to the values. Before passing to pgplot
routines however, the data are checked to see if they are in accordance with the format (typically dimensionality) required by the PGPLOT
routines. This is done using the routine "checkarg" (internal to PGPLOT). This routine checks the dimensionality of the input data. If
there are superfluous dimensions of size 1 they will be trimmed away until the dimensionality is correct. Example:
Assume a piddle with dimensions (1,100,1,1) is passed to "line", which expects its inputs to be vectors. "checkarg" will then return a pid-
dle with dimensions(100). If instead the same piddle was passed to "imag", which requires 2D piddles as output, "checkarg" would return a
piddle with dimensionality (100, 1) (Dimensions are removed from the start)
Thus, if you want to provide support for another PGPLOT function, the structure currently look like this (there are plans to use the
Options package to simplify the options parsing):
# Extract the hash(es) on the commandline
($arg, $opt)=_extract_hash(@_);
<Check the number of input parameters>
<deal with $arg>
checkarg($x, 3); # For a hypothetical 3D routine.
&catch_signals;
...
pgcube($n, $x->get_dataref);
&release_signals;
1;
(the catch_signals/release_signals pair prevent problems with the perl-PGPLOT interface if the user hits c-C during an operation).
Setting options
All routines in this package take a hash with options as an optional input. This options hash can be used to set parameters for the subse-
quent plotting without going via the PGPLOT commands.
This is implemented such that the plotting settings (such as line width, line style etc.) are affected only for that plot, any global
changes made, say, with "pgslw()" are preserved. Some modifications apply when using the OO interface, see below.
Alphabetical listing of standard options
The following options are always parsed. Whether they have any importance depend on the routine invoked - e.g. line style is irrelevant for
"imag", or the "justify" option is irrelevant if the display is on 'hold'. This is indicated in the help text for the commands below.
The options are not case sensitive and will match for unique substrings, but this is not encouraged as obscure options might invalidate
what you thought was a unique substring.
In the listing below examples are given of each option. The actual option can then be used in a plot command by specifying it as an argu-
ment to the function wanted (it can be placed anywhere in the command list).
E.g:
$opt={COLOR=>2};
line $x, $y, $opt; # This will plot a line with red color
If you are plotting to a hardcopy device then a number of options use a different name:
HardLW instead of LineWidth
HardCH instead of CharSize
HardFont instead of Font
HardAxisColour instead of AxisColour
HardColour instead of Colour
[although I'm not sure when HardColour is actually used]
arrow
This options allows you to set the arrow shape, and optionally size for arrows for the vect routine. The arrow shape is specified as a
hash with the key FS to set fill style, ANGLE to set the opening angle of the arrow head, VENT to set how much of the arrow head is cut
out and SIZE to set the arrowsize.
The following
$opt = {ARROW => {FS=>1, ANGLE=>60, VENT=>0.3, SIZE=>5}};
will make a broad arrow of five times the normal size.
Alternatively the arrow can be specified as a set of numbers corresponding to an extention to the syntax for pgsah. The equivalent to
the above is
$opt = {ARROW => pdl([1, 60, 0.3, 5})};
For the latter the arguments must be in the given order, and if any are not given the default values of 1, 45, 0.3 and 1.0 respectively
will be used.
arrowsize
The arrowsize can be specified separately using this option to the options hash. It is useful if an arrowstyle has been set up and one
wants to plot the same arrow with several sizes. Please note that it is not possible to set arrowsize and character size in the same
call to a plotting function. This should not be a problem in most cases.
$opt = {ARROWSIZE => 2.5};
axis
Set the axis value (see "env"). It can either be specified as a number, or by one of the following names:
EMPTY (-2) draw no box, axes or labels
BOX (-1) draw box only
NORMAL(0) draw box and label it with coordinates
AXES(1) same as NORMAL, but also draw (X=0,Y=0) axes
GRID(2) same as AXES, but also draw grid lines
LOGX(10) draw box and label X-axis logarithmically
LOGY(20) draw box and label Y-axis logarithmically
LOGXY(30) draw box and label both axes logarithmically
border
Normally the limits are chosen so that the plot just fits; with this option you can increase (or decrease) the limits by either a rela-
tive (ie a fraction of the original axis width) or an absolute amount. Either specify a hash array, where the keys are "TYPE" (set to
'relative' or 'absolute') and "VALUE" (the amount to change the limits by), or set to 1, which is equivalent to
BORDER => { TYPE => 'rel', VALUE => 0.05 }
charsize
Set the character/symbol size as a multiple of the standard size.
$opt = {CHARSIZE => 1.5}
The HardCH option should be used if you are plotting to a hardcopy device.
colour (or color)
Set the colour to be used for the subsequent plotting. This can be specified as a number, and the most used colours can also be speci-
fied with name, according to the following table (note that this only works for the default colour map):
0 - WHITE 1 - BLACK 2 - RED 3 - GREEN 4 - BLUE
5 - CYAN 6 - MAGENTA 7 - YELLOW 8 - ORANGE 14 - DARKGRAY
16 - LIGHTGRAY
However there is a much more flexible mechanism to deal with colour. The colour can be set as a 3 or 4 element anonymous array (or
piddle) which gives the RGB colours. If the array has four elements the first element is taken to be the colour index to change. For
normal work you might want to simply use a 3 element array with R, G and B values and let the package deal with the details. The R,G
and B values go from 0 to 1.
In addition the package will also try to interpret non-recognised colour names using the default X11 lookup table, normally using the
"rgb.txt" that came with PGPLOT.
For more details on the handling of colour it is best that the user consults the PGPLOT documentation. Further details on the handling
of colour can be found in the documentation for the internal routine _set_colour.
The HardColour option should be used if you are plotting to a hardcopy device [this may be untrue?].
filltype
Set the fill type to be used by poly, circle, ellipse, and rectangle The fill can either be specified using numbers or name, according
to the following table, where the recognised name is shown in capitals - it is case-insensitive, but the whole name must be specified.
1 - SOLID
2 - OUTLINE
3 - HATCHED
4 - CROSS_HATCHED
$opt = {FILLTYPE => 'SOLID'};
(see below for an example of hatched fill)
font
Set the character font. This can either be specified as a number following the PGPLOT numbering or name as follows (name in capitals):
1 - NORMAL
2 - ROMAN
3 - ITALIC
4 - SCRIPT
(Note that in a string, the font can be changed using the escape sequences "fn", "fr", "fi" and "fs" respectively)
$opt = {FONT => 'ROMAN'};
gives the same result as
$opt = {FONT => 2};
The HardFont option should be used if you are plotting to a hardcopy device.
hatching
Set the hatching to be used if either fillstyle 3 or 4 is selected (see above) The specification is similar to the one for specifying
arrows. The arguments for the hatching is either given using a hash with the key ANGLE to set the angle that the hatch lines will make
with the horizontal, SEPARATION to set the spacing of the hatch lines in units of 1% of "min(height, width)" of the view surface, and
PHASE to set the offset the hatching. Alternatively this can be specified as a 1x3 piddle "$hatch=pdl[$angle, $sep, $phase]".
$opt = {FILLTYPE => 'HATCHED',
HATCHING => {ANGLE=>30, SEPARATION=>4}};
Can also be specified as
$opt = {FILL=> 'HATCHED', HATCH => pdl [30,4,0.0]};
For another example of hatching, see "poly".
justify
A boolean value which, if true, causes both axes to drawn to the same scale; see the PGPLOT "pgenv()" command for more information.
linestyle
Set the line style. This can either be specified as a number following the PGPLOT numbering:
1 - SOLID line
2 - DASHED
3 - DOT-DASH-dot-dash
4 - DOTTED
5 - DASH-DOT-DOT-dot
or using name (as given in capitals above). Thus the following two specifications both specify the line to be dotted:
$opt = {LINESTYLE => 4};
$varopt = {LINESTYLE => 'DOTTED'};
The names are not case sensitive, but the full name is required.
linewidth
Set the line width. It is specified as a integer multiple of 0.13 mm.
$opt = {LINEWIDTH => 10}; # A rather fat line
The HardLW option should be used if you are plotting to a hardcopy device.
plotting range
Explicitly set the plot range in x and y. X-range and Y-range are set separately via the aptly named options "Xrange" and "Yrange". If
omitted PGPLOT selects appropriate defaults (minimum and maximum of the data range in general). These options are ignored if the window
is on hold.
line $x, $y, {xr => [0,5]}; # y-range uses default
line $x, $y, {Xrange => [0,5], Yrange => [-1,3]}; # fully specified range
OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE
This section will briefly describe how the PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window package can be used in an object-oriented (OO) approach and what
the advantages of this would be. We will start with the latter
Multiple windows.
For the common user it is probably most interesting to use the OO interface when handling several open devices at the same time. If you
have one variable for each plot device it is easier to distribute commands to the right device at the right time. This is the angle we
will take in the rest of this description.
Coding and abstraction
At a more fundamental level it is desirable to approach a situation where it is possible to have a generic plotting interface which
gives access to several plotting libraries, much as PGPLOT gives access to different output devices. Thus in such a hypothetical pack-
age one would say:
my $win1 = Graphics::new('PGPLOT', {Device => '/xs'});
my $win2 = Graphics::new('gnuplot', {Background => 'Gray'};
From a more practical point of of view such abstraction also comes in handy when you write a large program package and you do not want
to import routines nilly-willy in which case an OO approach with method calls is a lot cleaner.
The pgwin exported constructor, arguably, breaks this philosophy; hopefully it will ``wither away'' when other compatible modules are
available.
Anyway, enough philosophizing, let us get down to Earth and give some examples of the use of OO PGPLOT. As an example we will take Odd
(which happens to be a common Norwegian name) who is monitoring the birth of rabbits in O'Fib-o-nachy's farm (alternatively he can of
course be monitoring processes or do something entirely different). Odd wants the user to be able to monitor both the birth rates and accu-
mulated number of rabbits and the spatial distribution of the births. Since these are logically different he chooses to have two windows
open:
$rate_win = PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new(Device => '/xw',
Aspect => 1, WindowWidth => 5, NXPanel => 2);
$area_win = PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new(Device => '/xw',
Aspect => 1, WindowWidth => 5);
See the documentation for new below for a full overview of the options you can pass to the constructor.
Next, Odd wants to create plotting areas for subsequent plots and maybe show the expected theoretical trends
$rate_win->env(0, 10, 0, 1000, {XTitle => 'Days', YTitle => '#Rabbits'});
$rate_win->env(0, 10, 0, 100, {Xtitle=>'Days', Ytitle => 'Rabbits/day'});
$area_win->env(0, 1, 0, 1, {XTitle => 'Km', Ytitle => 'Km'});
# And theoretical prediction.
$rate_win->line(sequence(10), fibonacci(10), {Panel => [1, 1]});
That is basically it. The commands should automatically focus the relevant window. Due to the limitations of PGPLOT this might however lead
you to plot in the wrong panel... The package tries to be smart and do this correctly, but might get it wrong at times.
STATE and RECORDING
A new addition to the graphics interface is the ability to record plot commands. This can be useful when you create a nice-looking plot on
the screen that you want to re-create on paper for instance. Or if you want to redo it with slightly changed variables for instance. This
is still under development and views on the interface are welcome.
The functionality is somewhat detached from the plotting functions described below so I will discuss them and their use here.
Recording is off by default. To turn it on when you create a new device you can set the "Recording" option to true, or you can set the
$PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::RECORDING variable to 1. I recommend doing the latter in your ".perldlrc" file at least since you will often have
use for recording in the perldl script.
Use of recording
The recording is meant to help you recreate a plot with new data or to a different device. The most typical situation is that you have cre-
ated a beautiful plot on screen and want to have a Postscript file with it. In the dreary old world you needed to go back and execute all
commands manually, but with this wonderful new contraption, the recorder, you can just replay your commands:
dev '/xs', {Recording => 1}
$x = sequence(10)
line $x, $x**2, {Linestyle => 'Dashed'}
$s = retrieve_state() # Get the current tape out of the recorder.
dev '/cps'
replay $s
This should result in a "pgplot.ps" file with a parabola drawn with a dashed line. Note the command "retrieve_state" which retrieves the
current state of the recorder and return an object (of type PDL::Graphics::State) that is used to replay commands later.
Controlling the recording
Like any self-respecting recorder you can turn the recorder on and off using the "turn_on_recording" and "turn_off_recording" respectively.
Likewise you can clear the state using the "clear_state" command.
$w=PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new(Device => '/xs');
$w->turn_on_recording;
$x=sequence(10); $y=$x*$x;
$w->line($x, $y);
$w->turn_off_recording;
$w->line($y, $x);
$w->turn_on_recording;
$w->line($x, $y*$x);
$state = $w->retrieve_state();
We can then replay $state and get a parabola and a cubic plot.
$w->replay($state);
Tips and Gotchas!
The data are stored in the state object as references to the real data. This leads to one good and one potentially bad consequence:
The good is that you can create the plot and then subsequently redo the same plot using a different set of data. This is best explained by
an example. Let us first create a simple gradient image and get a copy of the recording:
$im = sequence(10,10)
imag $im
$s=retrieve_state
Now this was a rather dull plot, and in reality we wanted to show an image using "rvals". Instead of re-creating the plot (which of
course here would be the simplest option) we just change $im:
$im -= sequence(10,10)
$im += rvals(10,10)
Now replay the commands
replay $s
And hey presto! A totally different plot. Note however the trickery required to avoid losing reference to $im
This takes us immediately to the major problem with the recording though. Memory leakage! Since the recording keeps references to the data
it can keep data from being freed (zero reference count) when you expect it to be. For instance, in this example, we lose totally track of
the original $im variable, but since there is a reference to it in the state it will not be freed
$im = sequence(1000,1000)
imag $im
$s = retrieve_state
$im = rvals(10,10)
Thus after the execution of these commands we still have a reference to a 1000x1000 array which takes up a lot of memory...
The solution is to call "clear" on the state variable:
$s->clear()
(This is done automatically if the variable goes out of scope). I forsee this problem to most acute when working on the "perldl" com-
mand line, but since this is exactly where the recording is most useful the best advice is just to be careful and call clear on state
variables.
If you are working with scripts and use large images for instance I would instead recommend that you do not turn on recording unless
you need it.
FUNCTIONS
A more detailed listing of the functions and their usage follows. For all functions we specify which options take effect and what other
options exist for the given function. The function descriptions below are all given for the non-OO usage for historical reasons, but since
the conversion to an OO method is trivial there is no major need for concern. Whenever you see a function example of the form
Usage: a_simple_function($x, $y, $z [, $opt]);
and you wish to use the OO version, just let your mind read the above line as:
Usage: $win->a_simple_function($x, $y, $z [, $opt]);
where $win is a PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window object. That is all.
Window control functions.
pgwin
Exported constructor for PGPLOT object/device/plot window.
Usage: pgwin($opt);
Usage: pgwin($option->$value,...);
Usage: pgwin($device);
Parameters are passed on to new() and can either be specified by hash reference or as a list.
See the documentation fo PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window::new for details.
Because pgwin is a convenience function, you can specify the device by passing in a single non-ref parameter. For even further conve-
nience, you can even omit the '/' in the device specifier, so these two lines deliver the same result:
$a = pgwin(gif);
$a = new PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window({Dev=>'/gif'});
new
Constructor for PGPLOT object/device/plot window.
Usage: PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new($opt);
Usage: PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new($option=>$value,...);
Options to new() can either be specified via a reference to a hash
$win = PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new({Dev=>'/xserve',ny=>2});
or directly, as an array
# NOTE: no more {} !
$win = PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new(Dev=>'/xserve',ny=>2);
The following lists the recognised options:
AspectRatio
The aspect ratio of the image, in the sense vertical/horizontal. See the discussion on size setting.
Device
The type of device to use. The syntax of this is the one used by PGPLOT.
Hold
Hold the plot window so that subsequent plots can plot over existing plots. This can be adjusted with the "hold()" and "release()"
methods.
NXPanel
The number of panels in the X-direction
NYPanel
The number of panels in the Y-direction
Size
Yet another way to identify the plot window size -- this takes a scalar or an array ref containing one, two, or three numbers. One
number gives you a square window. Two gives you a rectangular window (X,Y). Three lets you specify the unit compactly (e.g.
[<X>,<Y>,1] for inches, [<X>,<Y>,2] for mm) but is deprecated in favor of using the Unit option. See the discussion on size setting.
Unit
The unit to use for size setting. PGPLOT accepts inch, mm, or pixel. The default unit is inches for historical reasons, but you can
choose millimeters or (God forbid) pixels as well. String or numeric specifications are OK (0=normalized, 1=inches, 2=mm, 3=pixels).
Normalized units make no sense here and are not accepted. Ideally someone will one day hook this into the CPAN units parser so you can
specify window size in rods or attoparsecs.
WindowName
The name to give to the window. No particular use is made of this at present. It would be great if it was possible to change the title
of the window frame.
WindowWidth
The width of the window in inches (or the specified Unit). See the discussion on size setting.
WindowXSize and WindowYSize
The width and height of the window in inches (or the specified Unit). See the discussion on size setting.
An important point to note is that the default values of most options can be specified by passing these to the constructor. All general
options (common to several functions) can be adjusted in such a way, but function specific options can not be set in this way (this is a
design limitation which is unlikely to be changed).
Thus the following call will set up a window where the default axis colour will be yellow and where plot lines normally have red colour and
dashed linestyle.
$win = PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new(Device => '/xs',
AxisColour => 'Yellow', Colour => 'Red', LineStyle => 'Dashed');
Size setting: There are a gazillion ways to set window size, in keeping with TIMTOWTDI. In general you can get away with passing any
unique combination of an <X> size, a <Y> size, and/or an aspect ratio. In increasing order of precedence, the options are: (Units, Aspec-
tRatio, WindowWidth, Window<X,Y>Size, Size).
So if you specify an AspectRatio *and* an X and a Y coordinate, the AspectRatio is ignored. Likewise, if you specify Units and a three-
component Size, the Units option is ignored in favor of the numeric unit in the Size.
If you don't specify enough information to set the size of the window, you get the default pane size and shape for that device.
close
Close a plot window
Usage: $win->close()
Close the current window. This does not necessarily mean that the window is removed from your screen, but it does ensure that the device is
closed.
A message will be printed to STDOUT giving the name of the file created if the plot was made to a hardcopy device and $PDL::verbose is
true.
held
Check if a window is on hold
$is_held = $win->held();
Function to check whether the window is held or not.
hold
Hold the present window.
Usage: $win->hold()
Holds the present window so that subsequent plot commands overplots.
panel
Switch to a different panel
$win->panel(<num>);
Move to a different panel on the plotting surface. Note that you will need to erase it manually if that is what you require.
release
Release a plot window.
$win->release()
Release a plot window so that subsequent plot commands move to the next panel or erase the plot and create a new plot.
erase
Erase plot
$win->erase($opt);
Erase a plot area. This accepts the option "Panel" or alternatively a number or array reference which makes it possible to specify the
panel to erase when working with several panels.
Plotting functions
env
Define a plot window, and put graphics on 'hold'
$win->env( $xmin, $xmax, $ymin, $ymax, [$justify, $axis] );
$win->env( $xmin, $xmax, $ymin, $ymax, [$options] );
$xmin, $xmax, $ymin, $ymax are the plot boundaries. $justify is a boolean value (default is 0); if true the axes scales will be the same
(see "justify"). $axis describes how the axes should be drawn (see "axis") and defaults to 0.
If the second form is used, $justify and $axis can be set in the options hash, for example:
$win->env( 0, 100, 0, 50, {JUSTIFY => 1, AXIS => 'GRID',
CHARSIZE => 0.7} );
In addition the following options can also be set for "env":
PlotPosition
The position of the plot on the page relative to the view surface in normalised coordinates as an anonymous array. The array should
contain the lower and upper X-limits and then the lower and upper Y-limits. To place two plots above each other with no space between
them you could do
$win->env(0, 1, 0, 1, {PlotPosition => [0.1, 0.5, 0.1, 0.5]});
$win->env(5, 9, 0, 8, {PlotPosition => [0.1, 0.5, 0.5, 0.9]});
Axis, Justify, Border
See the description of general options for these options.
AxisColour
Set the colour of the coordinate axes.
XTitle, YTitle, Title, Font, CharSize
Axes titles and the font and size to print them.
label_axes
Label plot axes
$win->label_axes(<xtitle>, <ytitle>, <plot title>, $options);
Draw labels for each axis on a plot.
imag
Display an image (uses "pgimag()"/"pggray()" as appropriate)
$win->imag ( $image, [$min, $max, $transform], [$opt] )
Notes: $transform for image/cont etc. is used in the same way as the "TR()" array in the underlying PGPLOT FORTRAN routine but is, fortu-
nately, zero-offset. The transform() routine can be used to create this piddle.
There are several options related to scaling. By default, the image is scaled to fit the PGPLOT default viewport on the screen. Scaling,
aspect ratio preservation, and 1:1 pixel mapping are available. (1:1 pixel mapping GREATLY increases the speed of pgimag, and is useful
for, eg, movie display; but it's not recommended for final output as it's not device-independent.)
Here's an additional complication: the "pixel" stuff refers not (necessarily) to normal image pixels, but rather to transformed image pix-
els. That is to say, if you feed in a transform matrix via the TRANSFORM option, the PIX, SCALE, etc. options all refer to the transformed
coordinates and not physical image pixels. That is a Good Thing because it, e.g., lets you specify plate scales of your output plots
directly! See fits_imag for an example application. If you do not feed in a transform matrix, then the identity matrix is applied so that
the scaling options refer to original data pixels.
To draw a colour bar (or wedge), either use the "DrawWedge" option, or the "draw_wedge()" routine (once the image has been drawn).
Options recognised:
ITF - the image transfer function applied to the pixel values. It
may be one of 'LINEAR', 'LOG', 'SQRT' (lower case is
acceptable). It defaults to 'LINEAR'.
MIN - Sets the minimum value to be used for calculation of the
display stretch
MAX - Sets the maximum value for the same
TRANSFORM - The transform 'matrix' as a 6x1 vector for display
PIX - Sets the image pixel aspect ratio. By default, imag
stretches the image pixels so that the final image aspect
ratio fits the viewport exactly. Setting PIX=>1 causes
the image aspect ratio to be preserved. (the image is
scaled to avoid cropping, unless you specify scaling
manually). Larger numbers yield "portrait mode" pixels
to match the C<Aspect> standard parameter in the PGPLOT
constructor. PIX overrides the boolean C<Justify> standard
PGPLOT option; but C<Justify=>1> acts the same as
C<PIX=>1>.
PITCH - Sets the number of image pixels per screen unit, in the X
direction. The Y direction is determined by PIX, which
defaults to 1 if PITCH is specified and PIX is not. PITCH
causes UNIT to default to "inches" so that it is easy to say
100dpi by specifying {PITCH=>100}. Larger numbers yield
higher resolution (hence smaller appearing) images.
UNIT - Sets the screen unit used for scaling. Must be one of the
PGPLOT supported units (inch, mm, pixel, normalized). You
can refer to them by name or by number. Defaults to pixels
if not specified.
SCALE - Syntactic sugar for the reciprocal of PITCH. Makes the
UNIT default to "pixels" so you can say "{SCALE=>1}"
to see your image in device pixels. Larger SCALEs lead
to larger appearing images.
DrawWedge - set to 1 to draw a colour bar (default is 0)
Wedge - see the draw_wedge() routine
ALIGN - How to align the image in the box. Two-character string
with "L","R", or "C" in the first character and
"T", "B", or "C" in the second character. This should
probably be implemented in a more general way but works
for now. Default is "BL". This doesn't make sense unless
you're manually messing with the scaling anyhow, because
if you're not, then the image is scaled to exactly fit the box.
The following standard options influence this command:
AXIS, BORDER, JUSTIFY
To see an image with maximum size in the current window, but square
pixels, say:
$win->imag( $a, { PIX=>1 } );
An alternative approach is to try:
$win->imag( $a, { JUSTIFY=>1 } );
To see the same image, scaled 1:1 with device pixels, say:
$win->imag( $a, { SCALE=>1 } );
To see an image made on a device with 1:2 pixel aspect ratio, with
X pixels the same as original image pixels, say
$win->imag( $a, { PIX=>0.5, SCALE=>2 } );
To display an image at 100 dpi on any device, say:
$win->imag( $a, { PITCH=>100 } );
To display an image with 100 micron pixels, say:
$win->imag( $a, { PITCH=>10, UNIT=>'mm' } );
imag1
Display an image with correct aspect ratio
$win->imag1 ( $image, [$min, $max, $transform], [$opt] )
This is syntactic sugar for
$win->imag( { PIX=>1, ALIGN=>'CC' } );
fits_imag
Display a FITS image with correct axes
$win->fits_imag( image, [$min, $max], [$opt] );
Notes:
Currently fits_imag also generates titles for you and appends the CTYPE units if they're present. So if you say
$win->fits_imag($pdl, {xtitle=>"frobnitz"})
you automagically get an X axis label that says "frobnitz (bleems)", if $pdl's CTYPE1 field contains "bleems".
If you don't pass in an xtitle or ytitle parameter, you still get the units designation. But if there's no CTYPE1 or CTYPE2 then you get
no units designation.
If CTYPE1 and CTYPE2 agree, then the default pixel aspect ratio is 1 (in scientific units, NOT in original pixels). If they don't agree
(as for a spectrum) then the default pixel aspect ratio is adjusted to match the plot viewport.
You can override the image scaling using the SCALE, PIX, or PITCH options just as with the imag() method -- but those parameters refer to
the scientific coordinate system rather than to the pixel coordinate system (e.g. "PITCH="100> means "100 scientific units per inch", and
"SCALE="1> means "1 scientific unit per device pixel". See the imag() writeup for more info on these options.
The default value of the "ALIGN" option is 'CC' -- centering the image both vertically and horizontally.
By default fits_imag draws a color wedge on the right; you can explicitly set the "DrawWedge" option to 0 to avoid this.
draw_wedge
Add a wedge (colour bar) to an image.
$win->draw_wedge( [$opt] )
Adds a wedge - shows the mapping between colour and value for a pixel - to the current image. This can also be achieved by setting
"DrawWedge" to 1 when calling the "imag" routine.
The colour and font size are the same as used to draw the image axes (although this will probably fail if you did it yourself). To control
the size and location of the wedge, use the "Wedge" option, giving it a hash reference containing any of the following:
Side
Which side of the image to draw the wedge: can be one of 'B', 'L', 'T', or 'R'. Default is 'R'.
Displacement
How far from the egde of the image should the wedge be drawn, in units of character size. To draw within the image use a negative
value. Default is 1.5.
Width
How wide should the wedge be, in units of character size. Default is 2.
Label
A text label to be added to the wedge. If set, it is probably worth increasing the "Width" value by about 1 to keep the text readable.
Default is ''.
ForeGround (synonym Fg)
The pixel value corresponding to the "maximum" colour. If "undef", uses the value used by "imag" (recommended choice). Default is
"undef".
BackGround (synonym Bg)
The pixel value corresponding to the "minimum" colour. If "undef", uses the value used by "imag" (recommended choice). Default is
"undef".
$a = rvals(50,50);
$win = PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new();
$win->imag( $a, { Justify => 1, ITF => 'sqrt' } );
$win->draw_wedge( { Wedge => { Width => 4, Label => 'foo' } } );
# although the following might be more sensible
$win->imag( $a, { Justify => 1, ITF => 'sqrt', DrawWedge => 1,
Wedge => { Width => 4, Label => 'foo'} } );
ctab
Load an image colour table.
Usage:
ctab ( $name, [$contrast, $brightness] ) # Builtin col table
ctab ( $ctab, [$contrast, $brightness] ) # $ctab is Nx4 array
ctab ( $levels, $red, $green, $blue, [$contrast, $brightness] )
ctab ( '', $contrast, $brightness ) # use last color table
Note: See PDL::Graphics::LUT for access to a large number of colour tables.
line
Plot vector as connected points
If the 'MISSING' option is specified, those points in the $y vector which are equal to the MISSING value are not plotted, but are skipped
over. This allows one to quickly draw multiple lines with one call to "line", for example to draw coastlines for maps.
Usage: line ( [$x,] $y, [$opt] )
The following standard options influence this command:
AXIS, BORDER, COLO(U)R, JUSTIFY, LINESTYLE, LINEWIDTH, MISSING
$x = sequence(10)/10.;
$y = sin($x)**2;
# Draw a red dot-dashed line
line $x, $y, {COLOR => 'RED', LINESTYLE=>3};
points
Plot vector as points
Usage: points ( [$x,] $y, [$symbol(s)], [$opt] )
Options recognised:
SYMBOL - Either a piddle with the same dimensions as $x, containing
the symbol associated to each point or a number specifying
the symbol to use for every point, or a name specifying the
symbol to use according to the following (recognised name in
capital letters):
0 - SQUARE 1 - DOT 2 - PLUS 3 - ASTERISK
4 - CIRCLE 5 - CROSS 7 - TRIANGLE 8 - EARTH
9 - SUN 11 - DIAMOND 12- STAR
PLOTLINE - If this is >0 a line will be drawn through the points.
The following standard options influence this command:
AXIS, BORDER, CHARSIZE, COLOUR, JUSTIFY, LINESTYLE, LINEWIDTH
"SymbolSize" allows to adjust the symbol size, it defaults to CharSize.
The "ColorValues" option allows one to plot XYZ data with the Z axis mapped to a color value. For example:
use PDL::Graphics::LUT;
ctab(lut_data('idl5')); # set up color palette to 'idl5'
points ($x, $y, {ColorValues => $z});
$y = sequence(10)**2+random(10);
# Plot blue stars with a solid line through:
points $y, {PLOTLINE => 1, COLOUR => BLUE, symbol => STAR}; # case insensitive
errb
Plot error bars (using "pgerrb()")
Usage:
errb ( $y, $yerrors, [$opt] )
errb ( $x, $y, $yerrors, [$opt] )
errb ( $x, $y, $xerrors, $yerrors, [$opt] )
errb ( $x, $y, $xloerr, $xhierr, $yloerr, $yhierr, [$opt])
Options recognised:
TERM - Length of terminals in multiples of the default length
SYMBOL - Plot the datapoints using the symbol value given, either
as name or number - see documentation for 'points'
The following standard options influence this command:
AXIS, BORDER, CHARSIZE, COLOUR, JUSTIFY, LINESTYLE, LINEWIDTH
$y = sequence(10)**2+random(10);
$sigma=0.5*sqrt($y);
errb $y, $sigma, {COLOUR => RED, SYMBOL => 18};
cont
Display image as contour map
Usage: cont ( $image, [$contours, $transform, $misval], [$opt] )
Notes: $transform for image/cont etc. is used in the same way as the "TR()" array in the underlying PGPLOT FORTRAN routine but is, fortu-
nately, zero-offset. The transform() routine can be used to create this piddle.
Options recognised:
CONTOURS - A piddle with the contour levels
FOLLOW - Follow the contour lines around (uses pgcont rather than
pgcons) If this is set >0 the chosen linestyle will be
ignored and solid line used for the positive contours
and dashed line for the negative contours.
LABELS - An array of strings with labels for each contour
LABELCOLOUR - The colour of labels if different from the draw colour
This will not interfere with the setting of draw colour
using the colour keyword.
MISSING - The value to ignore for contouring
NCONTOURS - The number of contours wanted for automatical creation,
overridden by CONTOURS
TRANSFORM - The pixel-to-world coordinate transform vector
The following standard options influence this command:
AXIS, BORDER, COLOUR, JUSTIFY, LINESTYLE, LINEWIDTH
$x=sequence(10,10);
$ncont = 4;
$labels= ['COLD', 'COLDER', 'FREEZING', 'NORWAY']
# This will give four blue contour lines labelled in red.
cont $x, {NCONT => $ncont, LABELS => $labels, LABELCOLOR => RED,
COLOR => BLUE}
bin
Plot vector as histogram (e.g. "bin(hist($data))")
Usage: bin ( [$x,] $data )
Options recognised:
CENTRE - if true, the x values denote the centre of the bin
otherwise they give the lower-edge (in x) of the bin
CENTER - as CENTRE
The following standard options influence this command:
AXIS, BORDER, COLOUR, JUSTIFY, LINESTYLE, LINEWIDTH
hi2d
Plot image as 2d histogram (not very good IMHO...)
Usage: hi2d ( $image, [$x, $ioff, $bias], [$opt] )
Options recognised:
IOFFSET - The offset for each array slice. >0 slants to the right
<0 to the left.
BIAS - The bias to shift each array slice up by.
The following standard options influence this command:
AXIS, BORDER, JUSTIFY
Note that meddling with the "ioffset" and "bias" often will require you to change the default plot range somewhat. It is also worth noting
that if you have TriD working you will probably be better off using mesh3d or a similar command - see the PDL::Graphics::TriD module.
$r=sequence(100)/50-1.0;
$y=exp(-$r**2)*transpose(exp(-$r**2))
hi2d $y, {IOFF => 1.5, BIAS => 0.07};
arrow
Plot an arrow
Usage: arrow($x1, $y1, $x2, $y2, [, $opt]);
Plot an arrow from "$x1, $y1" to "$x2, $y2". The arrow shape can be set using the option "Arrow". See the documentation for general options
for details about this option (and the example below):
Example:
arrow(0, 1, 1, 2, {Arrow => {FS => 1, Angle => 60, Vent => 0.3, Size => 5}});
which draws a broad, large arrow from (0, 1) to (1, 2).
poly
Draw a polygon
Usage: poly ( $x, $y )
Options recognised:
The following standard options influence this command:
AXIS, BORDER, COLOUR, FILLTYPE, HATCHING, JUSTIFY, LINESTYLE,
LINEWIDTH
# Fill with hatching in two different colours
$x=sequence(10)/10;
# First fill with cyan hatching
poly $x, $x**2, {COLOR=>5, FILL=>3};
hold;
# Then do it over again with the hatching offset in phase:
poly $x, $x**2, {COLOR=>6, FILL=>3, HATCH=>{PHASE=>0.5}};
release;
circle
Plot a circle on the display using the fill setting.
Usage: circle($x, $y, $radius [, $opt]);
All arguments can alternatively be given in the options hash using the following options:
XCenter and YCenter
The position of the center of the circle
Radius
The radius of the circle.
ellipse
Plot an ellipse, optionally using fill style.
Usage: ellipse($x, $y, $a, $b, $theta [, $opt]);
All arguments can alternatively be given in the options hash using the following options:
MajorAxis
The major axis of the ellipse - this must be defined or $a must be given.
MinorAxis
The minor axis, like A this is required.
Theta (synonym Angle)
The orientation of the ellipse - defaults to 0.0. This is given in radians.
XCenter and YCenter
The coordinates of the center of the ellipse. These must be specified or $x and $y must be given.
NPoints
The number of points used to draw the ellipse. This defaults to 100 and might need changing in the case of very large ellipses.
The routine also recognises the same standard options as accepted by poly.
rectangle
Draw a rectangle.
Usage: rectangle($xcenter, $ycenter, $xside, $yside, [, $angle, $opt]);
This routine draws a rectangle with the chosen fill style. Internally it calls poly which is somewhat slower than "pgrect" but which allows
for rotated rectangles as well. The routine recognises the same options as "poly" and in addition the following:
XCenter and YCenter
The position of the center of the rectangle. XCentre and YCentre are valid synonyms.
XSide and YSide
The length of the X and Y sides. If only one is specified the shape is taken to be square with that as the side-length, alternatively
the user can set Side
Side
The length of the sides of the rectangle (in this case a square) - syntactic sugar for setting XSide and YSide identical. This is over-
ridden by XSide or YSide if any of those are set.
Angle (synonym Theta)
The angle at which the rectangle is to be drawn. This defaults to 0.0 and is given in radians.
vect
Display 2 images as a vector field
Usage: vect ( $a, $b, [$scale, $pos, $transform, $misval] )
Notes: $transform for image/cont etc. is used in the same way as the "TR()" array in the underlying PGPLOT FORTRAN routine but is, fortu-
nately, zero-offset. The transform() routine can be used to create this piddle.
This routine will plot a vector field. $a is the horizontal component and $b the vertical component.
Options recognised:
SCALE - Set the scale factor for vector lengths.
POS - Set the position of vectors.
<0 - vector head at coordinate
>0 - vector base at coordinate
=0 - vector centered on the coordinate
TRANSFORM - The pixel-to-world coordinate transform vector
MISSING - Elements with this value are ignored.
The following standard options influence this command:
ARROW, ARROWSIZE, AXIS, BORDER, CHARSIZE, COLOUR, JUSTIFY,
LINESTYLE, LINEWIDTH
$a=rvals(11,11,{Centre=>[5,5]});
$b=rvals(11,11,{Centre=>[0,0]});
vect $a, $b, {COLOR=>YELLOW, ARROWSIZE=>0.5, LINESTYLE=>dashed};
transform
Create transform array for contour and image plotting
$win->transform([$xdim,$ydim], $options);
This function creates a transform array in the format required by the image and contouring routines. You must call it with the dimensions
of your image as arguments or pass these as an anonymous hash - see the example below.
Angle
The rotation angle of the transform
ImageDimensions
The dimensions of the image the transform is required for. The dimensions should be passed as a reference to an array.
Pixinc
The increment in output coordinate per pixel.
ImageCenter (or ImageCentre)
The centre of the image as an anonymous array or as a scalar. In the latter case the x and y value for the center will be set equal to
this scalar. This is particularly useful in the common case when the center is (0, 0).
RefPos (or ReferencePosition)
If you wish to set a pixel other than the image centre to a given value, use this option. It should be supplied with a reference to an
array containing 2 2-element array references, e.g.
RefPos => [ [ $xpix, $ypix ], [ $xplot, $yplot ] ]
This will label pixel "($xpix,$ypix)" as being at position "($xplot,$yplot)". The "ImageCentre" option can be considered to be a spe-
cial case of this option, since the following are identical (although one is a lot easier to type ;)
ImageCentre => [ $xc, $yc ]
RefPos => [ [($nx-1)/2,($ny-1)/2], [ $xc, $yc ] ]
The values supplied in "ImageCentre" are used if both "ImageCentre" and "RefPos" are supplied in the options list.
Example:
$im = rvals(100, 100);
$w = PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window->new(Device => '/xs');
$t = $w->transform(dims($im), {ImageCenter => 0, Pixinc => 5});
$w->imag($im, {Transform => $t});
tline
Threaded line plotting
$win->tline($x, $y, $options);
This is a threaded interface to "line". This is convenient if you have a 2D array and want to plot out every line in one go. The routine
will apply any options you apply in a "reasonable" way. In the sense that it will loop over the options wrapping over if there are less
options than lines.
Example:
$h={Colour => ['Red', '1', 4], Linestyle => ['Solid' ,'Dashed']};
$tx=zeroes(100,5)->xlinvals(-5,5);
$ty = $tx + $tx->yvals;
$win->tline($tx, $ty, $h);
tpoints
A threaded interface to points
Usage: tpoints($x, $y, $options);
This is a threaded interface to "points". This is convenient if you have a 2D array and want to plot out every line in one go. The routine
will apply any options you apply in a "reasonable" way. In the sense that it will loop over the options wrapping over if there are less
options than lines.
Example:
$h={Colour => ['Red', '1', 4], Linestyle => ['Solid' ,'Dashed']};
$tx=zeroes(100,5)->xlinvals(-5,5);
$ty = $tx + $tx->yvals;
tpoints($tx, $ty, $h);
Text routines
text
Write text in a plot window at a specified position.
Usage: text ($text, $x, $y [, $opt])
Options recognised:
"ANGLE"
The angle in degrees between the baseline of the text and the horisontal (increasing counter-clockwise). This defaults to 0.
"JUSTIFICATION"
The justification of the text relative to the position specified. It defaults to 0.0 which gives left-justified text. A value of 0.5
gives centered text and a value of 1.0 gives right-justified text.
"XPos", "YPos", "Text"
These gives alternative ways to specify the text and position.
"BackgroundColour"
This sets the background colour for the text in case an opaque background is desired. You can also use the synonyms "Bg" and "Back-
groundColor".
The following standard options influence this command:
COLOUR, CHARSIZE
line sequence(10), sequence(10)**2;
text 'A parabola', 3, 9, {Justification => 1, Angle=>atan2(6,1)};
legend
Add a legend to a plot
Usage: legend($text, $x, $y, [, $width], $opt]);
This function adds a legend to an existing plot. The action is primarily controlled by information in the options hash, and the basic idea
is that $x and $y determines the upper left hand corner of the box in which the legend goes. If the width is specified either as an argu-
ment or as an option in the option hash this is used to determine the optimal character size to fit the text into part of this width
(defaults to 0.5 - see the description of "TextFraction" below). The rest of the width is filled out with either lines or symbols according
to the content of the "LineStyle", "Symbol", "Colour" and "LineWidth" options.
The local options recognised are as follows:
"Text"
An anonymous array of annotations, can also be specified directly.
"XPos" and "YPos"
The X and Y position of the upper left-hand corner of the text.
"Width" and "Height"
The width and/or height of each line (including symbol/line). This is used to determine the character size. If any of these are set to
'Automatic' the current character size will be used.
"TextFraction"
The text and the symbol/line is set inside a box. "TextFraction" determines how much of this box should be devoted to text. This
defaults to 0.5. You can also use "Fraction" as a synonym to this.
"TextShift"
This option allows for fine control of the spacing between the text and the start of the line/symbol. It is given in fractions of the
total width of the legend box. The default value is 0.1.
"VertSpace" or "VSpace"
By default the text lines are separated by one character height (in the sense that if the separation were 0 then they would lie on top
of each other). The "VertSpace" option allows you to increase (or decrease) this gap in units of the character height; a value of 0.5
would add half a character height to the gap between lines, and -0.5 would remove the same distance. The default value is 0.
"BackgroundColour"
This sets the background colour for the text in case an opaque background is desired. You can also use the synonyms "Bg" and "Back-
groundColor".
line $x, $y, {Color => 'Red', LineStyle => 'Solid'};
line $x2, $y2, {Color => 'Blue', 'LineStyle' => 'Dashed', LineWidth => 10};
legend ['A red line', 'A blue line'], 5, 5,
{LineStyle => ['Solid', 'Dashed'], Colour => ['Red', 'Blue']
LineWidth => [undef, 10]}; # undef gives default.
Cursor routines
cursor
Interactively read cursor positions.
Usage: ($x, $y, $ch, $xref, $yref) = cursor($opt)
This routine has no standard input parameters, but the type of cursor can be set by setting the option "Type" as a key in the anonymous
hash $opt. The first three return values from the function are always defined and gives the position selected by the user and the character
pressed.
Depending on the cursor type selected the last two arguments might also be defined and these give a reference position. For instance if the
cursor is selected to be "Rectangle" then the reference position gives one of the corners of the rectangle and $x and $y the diagonally
opposite one.
Options recognised:
XRef, YRef
The reference position to be used
Type
The type of cursor. This can be selected using a number between 0 and 7 as in PGPLOT, or alternatively you can specify these as,
"Default" (0), "RadialLine" (1), "Rectangle" (2), "TwoHorizontalLines" (3), "TwoVerticalLines" (4), "HorizontalLine" (5), "VerticalL-
ine" (6) and "CrossHair" (7) respectively. The default cursor is just the normal mouse cursor.
For the "RadialLine" you must specify the reference point, whereas for the "Two(Vertical|Horizontal)Lines" cursor the X or Y reference
point, respectively, must be specified.
To select a region on a plot, use the rectangle cursor:
($x, $y, $ch, $xref, $yref) = cursor({Type => 'Rectangle'});
poly pdl($x, $xref, $xref, $x, $x), pdl($y, $y, $yref, $yref, $y);
To select a region of the X-axis:
($x1, $y1, $ch) = cursor({Type => 'VerticalLine'});
($x2, $y2, $ch) = cursor({Type => 'TwoVerticalLines', XRef => $x1});
Internal routines
signal_catcher, catch_signals, release_signals
To prevent pgplot from doing a fandango on core, we have to block interrupts during PGPLOT calls. Specifically, INT needs to get caught.
These internal routines provide a mechanism for that.
You simply bracket any PGPLOT calls with &catch_signals above and &release_signals below, and the signal_catcher will queue up any signals
(like INT -- the control-C interrupt) until the &release_signals call.
Any exit path from your hot code must include &release_signals, or interrupts could be deferred indefinitely (which would be a bug). This
includes calls to &barf -- even barfs from someone you called! So avoid calling out of the local module if possible, and use
release_and_barf() instead of barf() from within this module.
_open_new_window
Open a new window. This sets the window ID, which is the one used when accessing a window later using "pgslct". It also sets the window
name to something easily remembered if it has not been set before.
_setup_window
This routine sets up a new window with its shape and size. This is also where the size options are actually parsed. These are then forgot-
ten (well, they are stored in $self->{Options}) and the corresponding aspect ratio and window width is stored. See the discussion under
new() for the logic.
Finally the subpanels are set up using "pgsubp" and colours and linewidth are adjusted according to whether we have a hardcopy device or
not.
_status
This routine checks the status of the window. It returns OPEN if the window is open and CLOSED if it is closed.
_reopen
This functions reopens a window. Since this is an internal function it does not have a lot of error-checking. Make sure the device is
closed before calling this routine.
There is an unfortunate problem which pops up viz. that the window name cannot be changed at this point since we are offering that to the
rest of the world. That might be sensible, but it means that the window name will not reflect the id of the window - use "id()" for that
(this is also why we do not call "open_new_window" )
_advance_panel
This routine advances one plot panel, updating the CurrentPanel as well. If the advance will proceed past the page the page will be
erased. Also note that when you advance one panel the hold value will be changed.
_check_move_or_erase
This routine is a utility routine which checks if we need to move panel, and if so will do this. It also checks if it is necessary to
advance panels, and whether they need to be erased.
_thread_options
This function is a cludgy utility function that expands an options hash to an array of hashes looping over options. This is mainly of use
for "threaded" interfaces to standard plotting routines.
options
Access the options used when originally opening the window. At the moment this is not updated when the window is changed later.
id
Access the window ID that PGPLOT uses for the present window.
device
This function returns the device type of the present window.
name
Accessor to set and examine the name of a window.
focus
Set focus for subsequent PGPLOT commands to this window.
info
Get general information about the PGPLOT environment.
@ans = $self->info( @item );
The valid values of @item are as below, where case is not important:
VERSION - What PGPLOT version is in use.
STATE - The status of the output device, this is returns 'OPEN'.
if the device is open and 'CLOSED' otherwise.
USER - The username of the owner of the spawning program.
NOW - The current date and time in the format
'dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm'. Most people are likely to use Perl
functions instead.
DEVICE * - The current PGPLOT device or file, see also device().
FILE * - The filename for the current device.
TYPE * - And the device type for the current device.
DEV/TYPE * - This combines DEVICE and TYPE in a form that can be used
as input to new.
HARDCOPY * - This is flag which is set to 'YES' if the current device is
a hardcopy device and 'NO' otherwise.
TERMINAL * - This flag is set to 'YES' if the current device is the
user's terminal and 'NO' otherwise.
CURSOR * - A flag ('YES' or 'NO') to inform whether the current device
has a cursor.
Those items marced with a "*" only return a valid answer if the window is open. A question mark ("?") is returned if the item is not
recognised or the information is not available.
_extract_hash
This routine takes and array and returns the first hash reference found as well as those elements that are not hashes. Note the latter
point because all other references to hashes in the array will be lost.
_parse_unit
Convert a unit string or number into a PGPLOT-certified length unit specification, or return undef if it won't go.
_parse_options
This is a convenience routine for parsing a set of options. It returns both the full set of options and those that the user has set.
_save_status
Saves the PGPLOT state so that changes to settings can be made and then the present state restored by "_restore_status".
_restore_status
Restore the PGPLOT state. See "_save_status".
_checkarg
This routine checks and optionally alters the arguments given to it.
_set_colour
This is an internal routine that encapsulates all the nastiness of setting colours depending on the different PGPLOT colour models
(although HLS is not supported).
The routine works in the following way:
o At initialisation of the plot device the work colour index is set to 16. The work index is the index the routine will modify unless
the user has specified something else.
o The routine should be used after standard interpretation and synonym matching has been used. So if the colour is given as input is
an integer that colour index is used.
o If the colour is a reference the routine checks whether it is an "ARRAY" or a "PDL" reference. If it is not an error message is
given. If it is a "PDL" reference it will be converted to an array ref.
o If the array has four elements the first element is interpreted as the colour index to modify and this overrules the setting for
the work index used internally. Otherwise the work index is used and incremented until the maximum number of colours for the output
device is reached (as indicated by "pgqcol"). Should you wish to change that you need to read the PGPLOT documentation - it is
somewhat device dependent.
o When the array has been recognised the R,G and B colours of the user-set index or work index is set using the "pgscr" command and
we are finished.
o If the input colour instead is a string we try to set the colour using the PGPLOT routine "pgscrn" with no other error-checking.
This should be ok, as that routine returns a rather sensible error-message.
_standard_options_parser
This internal routine is the default routine for parsing options. This routine deals with a subset of options that most routines will
accept.
_SetupViewport
Set up the plotting viewport in the current PGPLOT window, using the options hash. Needed in both initenv() and imag(), _SetupViewport is
isolated in its own sub to enforce consistency of behavior.
INTERNAL
The coding tries to follow reasonable standards, so that all functions starting with an underscore should be considered as internal and
should not be called from outside the package. In addition most routines have a set of options. These are encapsulated and are not accessi-
ble outside the routine. This is to avoid collisions between different variables.
AUTHOR
Karl Glazebrook [kgb@aaoepp.aao.gov.au] modified by Jarle Brinchmann (jarle@astro.ox.ac.uk) who is also responsible for the OO interface,
docs mangled by Tuomas J. Lukka (lukka@fas.harvard.edu) and Christian Soeller (c.soeller@auckland.ac.nz). Further contributions and bug-
fixes from Kaj Wiik, Doug Burke, Craig DeForest, and many others.
All rights reserved. There is no warranty. You are allowed to redistribute this software / documentation under certain conditions. For
details, see the file COPYING in the PDL distribution. If this file is separated from the PDL distribution, the copyright notice should be
included in the file.
perl v5.8.0 2002-08-19 Window(3)