68K Plotting Library/PLPLOT

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ferrels

Posted on: 2017/4/24 7:47 #1

Just popping in

After a 24 year hiatus I decided to drag my A1200 out of storage and brush up on classic Amiga development. I hope to do more development once I get my hands on the standalone Vampire. I normally develop LIDAR applications for Windows and OSX using XCode and Visual Studio. As a refresher I thought it would be a good exercise to compile PLPLOT 5.0.1 for classic Amigas since it was the last version that supported the classics and the latest version on Aminet is 2.6. I was successful at compiling the library and building all the examples but not without some pain. Finding a "make" utility to process the included make file was troublesome but I finally found the correct one on Fred Fish Disk #69. The GNU make utility on Aminet may also work but I haven't tried it. You also have to link against the reqtools.library which is found on Aminet. The make file also needed some heavy editing but now everything builds fine using SAS C 6.58. I will upload the entire archive once Aminet is back online. Seems to be down at the moment. Below are some plot examples using the High Graphics Screen Mode Driver and 256 colors. The library supports other modes as well and screen mode selection is menu driven. I will include all the binaries and PLPLOT link time library in the archive for those who want to use it.

Aminet link to archive: http://aminet.net/gfx/show/plplot68k-5.0.1.lha

Readme link: http://aminet.net/package/gfx/show/plplot68k-5.0.1

To run the examples, extract the archive to your favorite hard disk such as DH1:
Then open a shell and create the following assign without quotes: "assign plplot: DH1:plplot"

Navigate to plplot/tmp and then run any of the examples such as X01c thru X19c.

Here are some High GFX plots created from the examples on my A1200:

Resized Image

Edited by ferrels on 2017/4/24 8:04:38
Edited by ferrels on 2017/4/24 8:14:17
Edited by ferrels on 2017/4/28 23:36:48
Edited by ferrels on 2017/4/28 23:38:06
Edited by ferrels on 2017/4/28 23:50:22

Dandy

Re: 68K Plotting Library/PLPLOT

Posted on: 2017/4/28 8:40 #2

Just popping in

@ferrels
Quote:

Original by ferrels:

After a 24 year hiatus I decided to drag my A1200 out of storage and brush up on classic Amiga development. I hope to do more development once I get my hands on the standalone Vampire. I normally develop LIDAR applications for Windows and OSX using XCode and Visual Studio. As a refresher I thought it would be a good exercise to compile PLPLOT 5.0.1 for classic Amigas since it was the last version that supported the classics and the latest version on Aminet is 2.6.

Wow!
A new function plotter for my Miggy!
That's great!
Thanks a lot, mate!

Back in the days I was studying mechanical engineering and frequently used programs like MathAMation with the mech. eng. module, function plotter, NewIO, MaxxonCAD, DynaCadd, Reflections and the like on my A500...

Quote:

Original by ferrels:

I was successful at compiling the library and building all the examples but not without some pain. Finding a "make" utility to process the included make file was troublesome but I finally found the correct one on Fred Fish Disk #69. The GNU make utility on Aminet may also work but I haven't tried it. You also have to link against the reqtools.library which is found on Aminet. The make file also needed some heavy editing but now everything builds fine using SAS C 6.58.

Too sad I never found enough spare time to learn to code for the Amiga.
I coded a lot on the CBM 620 that I had before the Amiga, but then I started to study and had to learn how to code for the PCs (Assembler, Fortran77, C, SPS, CNC and such...).

Just 5.99 years from now until I retire, if all goes well.
Maybe I'll find enough time then - provided my Amiga will still be in working condition then.
It's a real pity - I bought StormC and Hollywood and never had enough time to really use them...

Quote:

Original by ferrels:

I will upload the entire archive once Aminet is back online. Seems to be down at the moment.

Seems to be online again meanwhile...

Quote:

Original by ferrels:

Here's the output of PLPLOT's Example #8 using the High Graphics Screen Mode Driver and 256 colors. The library supports other modes as well and screen mode selection is menu driven. I will include all the binaries and PLPLOT link time library in the archive for those who want to use it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8aphzk05sia3dfr/shaded-plot.jpg?dl=0

...

To run the examples, extract the archive to your favorite hard disk such as DH1:
Then open a shell and create the following assign without quotes: "assign plplot: DH1:plplot"

Navigate to plplot/tmp and then run any of the examples such as X01c thru X19c.

Hmmm - I had a brief look at at the .readme.
It seems to tell a lot about compliling, but just a few lines of 'Amiga Release Notes'.

What I'm really missing is a documentation to learn how to use it, e.g. the syntax to enter functions.

Is there a usable documentation in the old version, or do you intend to release a documentation for the new release in the forseeable future?
It is so looooong ago since I used a function plotter on the Amiga the last time...

Quote:

Original by ferrels:

Looks like Aminet may be down a while so here's a DropBox link to the archive:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hpxzbd1dp48m0hy/plplot68K-5.0.1.lha?dl=0

As mentioned above - Aminet is working again...

Ciao,
Dandy
-----------------------------------------------------------
If someone enjoys marching to military music, then I already despise him.
He got his brain accidently - the bone marrow in his back would have been sufficient for him!
(...

ferrels

Re: 68K Plotting Library/PLPLOT

Posted on: 2017/4/28 22:10 #3

Just popping in

@Dandy

Yes, Aminet is back online and I have uploaded the 5.0.1 archive and README. You can get it here: http://aminet.net/gfx/show/plplot68k-5.0.1.lha
The Readme is here: http://aminet.net/package/gfx/show/plplot68k-5.0.1

The PLPLOT homepage is here in case you're looking for documentation and more : http://plplot.sourceforge.net/

PLPLOT is actually a programmer's plotting library with bindings for C/C++, Fortran, Python and a few other languages. It makes it quite easy for novice programmers to write their own plotting applications. The example programs can be easily modified and re-compiled to suit your needs if you have a compiler.

The current version of PLPLOT is 5.12 for non-Amiga systems. I may take a stab one of these days at updating the Amiga version to 5.12 but right now I'm quite happy with 5.0.1 as it does everything I need it to do. And it's much more advanced than the version 2.6 that has been on Aminet for years. The maintainers of PLPLOT have also migrated to a CMAKE environment which makes updating this Amiga version to 5.12 somewhat more difficult as I don't think there's a CMAKE tool for classic Amigas.

ferrels

Re: 68K Plotting Library/PLPLOT

Posted on: 2017/4/28 23:43 #4

Just popping in

@Dandy

I just uploaded some plots created by the example programs on my A1200 using the High GFX driver.

Dandy

Re: 68K Plotting Library/PLPLOT

Posted on: 2017/5/16 12:55 #5

Just popping in

@ferrels
Quote:

Original by ferrels:
@Dandy

I just uploaded some plots created by the example programs on my A1200 using the High GFX driver.

Unfortunately all I can see is this:
Resized Image

No link to click on, no URL displayed somewhere...

The initial screenshot you had in here obviously had a very low resolution (the plot was shown very 'pixelated') - do the new screenshots live up to the name 'High GFX'?

Like this one, for example:
Resized Image

Edited by Dandy on 2017/5/17 6:47:52

ferrels

Re: 68K Plotting Library/PLPLOT

Posted on: 2017/5/17 7:07 #6

Just popping in

@Dandy

Hmmm...the graphics show up just fine for me in the first post. They were created at 1024x768x256. Your browser must not be working properly as I can see them well in Chrome and Edge.

The PLPLOT screens are user selectable so if you choose to use a higher resolution or if you have an RTG card you can use higher resolutions if you so desire. My A1200 only has an old Rosewill monitor attached that can't go any higher than 1280x960. That's why I posted pics at 1024x768. I also do not have 24-bit color capability on my Amiga 1200 so Example 8 is using 256 dithered colors, hence the lack of smoothness. The array used to generate the example was also quite small, around 128x128 if I remember correctly. Using a 24 bit display and a much larger array would yield a smooth graph.

Here are the links to the images I created on my A1200 in the first post in case you're still having trouble seeing them.

http://www.lidarwidgets.com/samples/plplot/example01.jpg
http://www.lidarwidgets.com/samples/plplot/example08.jpg
http://www.lidarwidgets.com/samples/plplot/example09.jpg
http://www.lidarwidgets.com/samples/plplot/example16.jpg
http://www.lidarwidgets.com/samples/plplot/example16-1.jpg

And yes, PLPLOT can display images like the one you posted. The images I posted are merely the result of the example programs as they were written with no changes and no bells or whistles. You can see more examples here: PLPLOT Demo Plots

And please remember, I didn't write PLPLOT. PLPLOT is an opensource effort with hundreds of programmers and users making code contributions. I merely compiled the 5.0.1 library for classic Amigas, compiled the examples and posted some of the pics created by the examples. If you want to know more about PLPLOT, please go to their web site here PLPLOT Home

Dandy

Re: 68K Plotting Library/PLPLOT

Posted on: 2017/5/17 10:46 #7

Just popping in

@ferrels

Thank you for providing the links.
And sorry for forgetting to mention that I use RTG on my Amiga exclusively - the native (classic) Amiga graphic modes are too tiring for my aging eyes - especially on old Amiga Monitors (CBM 1081 (S), 1084 (S), 1940/42)...

EDIT:

Strange things are happening here.
After submitting this reply, all of a sudden the pictures you inserted in the first posting were visible.

I didn't change any setting here in my InternetExplorer 11, version 11.0.9600.18638CO - I have absolutely no clue what could be the reason for this...

Edited by Dandy on 2017/5/17 11:01:19

ferrels

Re: 68K Plotting Library/PLPLOT

Posted on: 2017/5/26 19:22 #8

Just popping in

@Dandy

No worries. Probably just a glitch in your browser cache.

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