Re: Easy way to make hard copies at full printer resolution

[mirko_vukovic(at)notes.mrc.sony.com]

In article <35EE44D0.75836E2F@risoe.dk>,
  Kristian Kjaer <kristian.kjaer@risoe.dk> wrote:
> (The shareware site sounds like a good thing.)
>
> The command grabber/replayer should be very useful.
> However, I think there are some frequently-occurring situations when
> this would not be the method of choice for generating a hard copy, e.
> g.,
> > * plot, <very complicated, time-consuming expression> ,or
> > * plot,y & y=some_function(y) & oplot,y ; if you replay this, then y
; will be further modified.
>
> Plotting object graphics instead of direct graphics would do it, but
> then, as I understand it, all the nice IDL commands (plot, contour,
> surface, xyouts,..., with their numerous optional keywords) are not
> available but would have to be programmed in terms of atoms.
>
> The really effective, neat solution would be if IDL would make it so
> that all the usual commands can be used to plot into an object graphic
> or (almost the same thing, I suppose)
> if, when plotting direct graphics to the screen, one could optionally
> have the resulting graphic vector primitives stored in a buffer for
> subsequent rendering on a hard-copy device.
>
> Maybe, I we shout loud enough here, IDL will see the light and implement
> it in the next version?
>
> - Kristian
>
The way I approached the problem (the solution is broken now, as my version of
LinkedList (object) is back in the shop to make sure the cleanup is done
correctly) has a plotw object that stores all the data that it is supposed to
plot.  It can then re-plot them at will.  In the meantime, it will accept
changes in cooridinate system (right now it deals with polar and cartesian 2D
only), line types and so on.

In an ideal world I would have posted it, but never found the time to package
it (it relies on a slew of home-grown routines) and write a user guide.

Ideally, if I give it out, I would like any modifications to it to be done in
a self-consistent way (something like emacs).

If you want it I can try to email it, but be prepared to sweat it out for a
couple of days untill it works as advertised :-)

Now on to credits (not all of this is my idea).

The  first form of this idea came to me when I had to transpose the axis of a
very complicated plot.  I found it easier to send then the plot commands to an
object that would then do the axis-setting and plotting.

A couple of months later, D.Fanning posted/emailed his latest/greatest idea
about IDL direct graphic plots as objects.  This started my thinking.

I needed something that could accept polar/rectangular data and plot in
polar/rectangular coordinates.	Being impatient, I put the PlotW object in
about a week, 10 days.	(It also deals with simultaneous multiple windows,
plot regions, and such, remembering the sysvars, pixmaps, if requested).  One
day I may even implement Smith Charts with it.

>From David's post it looks that we did not quite follow the same paths, which
is great.  I did not breathe too easy writing the code based on his ideas.

Mirko

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