Basic Plotting Requirements
What basic features must a useful plotting package have? The
following is at least a minimal list of things it ought to be able to
do. Most seasoned users would expect considerably more!
The program should
- allow both interactive and scripted (batch) operation
- read data from a file, or generate it internally
- allow the user to easily select subsets of the data for display
- determine appropriate limits from the data, or allow the user
to set them
- draw a labeled box, with sensibly chosen and placed tick marks
and numbers
- allow both linear and logarithmic plots to be generated from
the same dataset
- allow easy placement of labels, headers, arrows, etc.
- optionally plot the data as lines, points, etc.
- allow easy specification of line and point colors, styles, etc.
- allow easy switching between output to the screen or a file
(or a printer)
- allow rapid experimentation and modification