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                                EASIPLOT

                    Documentation for EASIPLOT v. 1.02
                         (C) ARC Scientific 1989




       1    BASIC INFORMATION                                   1
       1.1  Limitation of liability                             1
       1.2  The shareware concept                               1
       1.3  User support                                        3
       1.4  Specifications                                      4
       2    OVERVIEW OF EASIPLOT                                5
       3    USING EASIPLOT WITH EASISTAT                        6
       3.1  Problems running EASIPLOT from EASISTAT             6
       3.2  The BASICS function                                 8
       3.3  The CHISQ function                                  8
       3.4  The ANOVA function                                  8
       3.5  The REGRESS function                                8
       3.6  The KOLMOGOROV function                             9
       3.6  The COMPONENT function                              9
       3.8  General points                                      9
       4    RUNNING EASIPLOT ON ITS OWN                        11
       5    RUNNING EASIPLOT FROM COMMAND FILES                14
       6    FORMAT OF GRAPH FILES                              15
       6    PRINTING GRAPHS                                    17
       7    PROBLEMS WITH EASIPLOT                             19
       8    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS                                    21





                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      Chapter 1             BASIC INFORMATION

      This documentation is copyright. It may only be reproduced, stored or
      transmitted in whole or in part by any electronic or mechanical
      means in accordance with the conditions outlined below.

      EASIPLOT is prototype of a free-standing graph-drawing program which
      is specially designed to work with EASISTAT, a statistics package.
      Both EASISTAT and EASIPLOT are Shareware packages - that is they may
      be copied freely but people who find them useful are encouraged to
      pay to become registered users. Registered users will receive up-to-
      date versions of both programs and a full printed manual for
      EASISTAT (we apologise that there is currently no other
      documentation available for EASIPLOT, but if enough people register
      then we will prepare a manual).

      1.1  LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

      It is possible that this manual or the EASIPLOT program contain
      errors which mean that the program does not behave in the way
      described. We have attempted to the best of our ability to
      eliminate such errors, but it is possible that some do exist. If the
      software or manual contains significant errors rendering the program
      unusable then our liability is limited to replacing defective
      material that we have supplied or refunding the purchase price paid.
      No liability can be accepted for anybody who has not paid for the
      program and become a registered user. In any event the liability of
      ARC Scientific Ltd. with respect to problems associated with the use
      of this program through such errors or through other circumstances
      shall not exceed the price of the program as published by ARC
      Scientific Ltd. or as paid by the user, whichever is the lower. Use
      of the software supplied constitutes an understanding and acceptance
      of such limitation of liability.

      1.2  THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT

      One way for the programmer to distribute useful programs to users
      is through ordinary retail outlets - shops and mail order companies.
      This demands high overheads for many middlemen and forces up the
      final price of the program to the user. In addition the user must
      pay for a program before he acquires it, usually having to judge its
      merits second-hand by means of a review or advertising copy.
      Programs acquired in this way are normally copyright and it is
      forbidden and illegal to copy them. Often they are in fact copied
      illegally, forcing up prices further, or else the distributor is
      obliged to apply some form of copy-protection to the program which
      reduces its convenience of use.

      The Shareware alternative is to allow individuals to copy a program
      freely and to encourage them to pass it on to their friends and
      colleagues. The program remains copyright but the holder of the
      copyright grants restricted permission to individuals in possession
      of the program to make copies of it. Potential users can evaluate
      the program first-hand and are only then requested pay for the

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      program if they decide that it is worth the price asked for it.
      Because of the low distribution costs the price for a Shareware
      program can be many times lower than for an equivalent program sold
      conventionally. No legal sanctions are applied to somebody who uses
      the program without paying for it, but the success of the Shareware
      concept depends on those people who do feel it is reasonable to pay
      for something which they find useful. In the case of EASIPLOT and
      EASISTAT people who pay for the program will be added to the list of
      registered users and will receive a full printed manual for
      EASISTAT.

      THE SHAREWARE AGREEMENT

      You are assumed to understand and accept the following conditions
      as a condition of your possession and use of the EASIPLOT program
      and associated files.

      EASIPLOT is distributed as a Shareware program. That means that you
      are legally allowed to copy it and give copies to other people who
      you think might like it - in fact you are encouraged to do so.
      However please note the following points:

      1. The copyright of the program remains with ARC Scientific Limited.

      2. You must not charge more than a nominal fee for the program if you
      pass it on to someone else, nor may you distribute the disk as part
      of a promotional scheme.

      3. Please acknowledge the program in any publications of work for
      which it was used.

      4. If you pass it on you must do so in unmodified form and the
      following files must all be passed on together:

          EASIPLOT.EXE
          PRMSP.EXE
          EASIPLOT.DOC (This file)
          EXAMPLE.DAT
          PDEMO
          PLOTDEMO.BAT
          README
          ORDINV.PRN
          PRODUCTS
          HDA.GRP
          HISTO.GRP
          ANOVA.GRP
          REGRESS.GRP
          TRIGS.GRP
          FRILLY.GRP
          WAVE.GRP

      5. Although the program may be freely copied and may be used for
      evaluation purposes, anybody who thereafter continues to use it
      should pay to become a registered user. Registered users will

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      receive an up-to-date version of the programs and the full printed
      EASISTAT manual.

      The current price to register EASIPLOT and EASISTAT together is
      thirty pounds sterling, which is inclusive of VAT and delivery
      charges in the UK and is inclusive of shipping charges for overseas
      orders. The price for orders from the US is fifty-five US dollars
      inclusive of shipping. These prices are correct at time of writing,
      but are liable to change without notice.

      Please address orders and enquiries about bulk discounts to:

         ARC Scientific Limited,
         257 Woodstock Road,
         Oxford OX2 7AE.

         Tel. [phone]

      Order and invoice forms are provided in the file ORDINV.PRN.

      If you give the program and the other files that go with it to
      someone else then please explain to them how to set the
      demonstration running. If you give them a floppy disk with the
      files on we recommend that you write on the label:

      EASIPLOT Copyright (C) ARC Scientific Ltd. 1989

      Enter -     A:
                  PLOTDEMO

      1.3  USER SUPPORT

      User support is limited to those people who have paid to become
      registered users.

      Because of the low price of this program we are able to offer only
      limited user support. If you have problems running EASIPLOT then
      please consult this documentation and the EASISTAT manual carefully
      to see if that can help. If you still need advice then please write
      with a stamped addressed envelope to:

      EASIPLOT User Support,
      ARC Scientific Limited,
      257 Woodstock Road,
      Oxford OX2 7AE.

      We will attempt to answer your query as quickly as possible,
      though we cannot guarantee to be able to do so. Please give us
      full details about the following information:

      Your DOS version number.
      The type of computer and peripherals you have.
      The names of any memory-resident programs.
      The contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files.

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                               EASIPLOT.DOC


      Please enclose a copy of any relevant files on a floppy disk. We
      will return it.

      1.4  SPECIFICATIONS

      EASIPLOT runs on a personal computer using MS-DOS version 2.0 or
      later. It requires at least 256K of memory, but will use more if
      available. All data is held in memory for speed of calculations, so
      the amount of data which can be processed is limited by the size of
      the computer's memory. If a maths coprocessor chip is installed then
      EASIPLOT will use it to increase the speed of calculations. EASIPLOT
      will run under DESQview if the "Displays graphics information"
      specified and under Microsoft Windows if the "Writes directly to
      screen option" is selected from the PIFEDIT menu. EASIPLOT can save
      files in Microsoft Paint format, allowing graphs to be read in and
      treated as pictures which can be edited by Paint.






































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      Chapter 2             OVERVIEW OF EASIPLOT

      EASIPLOT reads in data from text files called graph files. These
      consist of a series of values arranged in rows and columns and some
      other information about the default type of graph to be drawn, the
      graph titles, etc. The format of these files is explained more fully
      in the chapter entitled "Graph files", but if you are using EASIPLOT
      with EASISTAT then you do not have to worry much about them because
      EASISTAT prepares files in the correct format automatically. The
      program is specially designed so that graphs can be displayed by
      EASISTAT just by specifying a 'G' option on some of the functions.

      EASIPLOT can organise the data read in from the file in different
      ways - values can be grouped according to rows, columns, rows and
      columns, or pairs of columns can be plotted against each other.
      Vertical bar charts, line graphs and scatter plots can be drawn, and
      there are options to alter scaling, shading and other aspects of the
      display. Titles may be added, deleted or changed. There is also some
      capability to produce 3D graphs.

      The modified graph can be saved to disk as a graph file so that
      the next time it is displayed it will be shown in its updated form.
      The graph can also be saved to disk as a binary screendump. In this
      form it can be printed out to a dot-matrix printer. An important
      feature is that it can also be read in by Microsoft Paint and
      further adjustments made to the graph image before eventually
      printing it out.




























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                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      Chapter 3          USING EASIPLOT WITH EASISTAT

      The easiest way to use EASIPLOT, and the purpose for which it is
      specifically designed, is to provide a graphical representation of
      some of EASISTAT's functions. The syntax to produce a graph is the
      same for each function and is very simple. In the description that
      follows we will assume that you are familiar with the EASISTAT
      documentation. Special reference should be made to the description
      of the CHISQ function which describes how EASISTAT can use PCG2 to
      draw graphs. EASIPLOT has become available since the EASISTAT manual
      was printed and EASIPLOT now uses it instead of PCG2.

      A graphing option is available from six of the EASISTAT functions:
      CHISQ, ANOVA, BASICS, REGRESS, KOLMOGOROV and COMPONENTS. Each
      produces a different type of graph. To get one of these functions to
      produce a graph simply enter 'G' as an option after specifying the
      function name. (The 'G' is shown on the help screen by the relevant
      functions.) When this option is specified then EASISTAT will write a
      specially formatted graph file to disk and then will run EASIPLOT to
      display the graph by using EASISTAT's SYSTEM command. So all you
      need to do to get a frequency distribution graph of column 15 of
      EASISTAT's data is to type:

      BASICS G C15

      and EASISTAT will do the rest.

      Here are other examples:

      REGRESS G C15 C16  -> scatter plot of C16 against C15
      ANOVA G C15        -> vertical scatter plots of C15 in groups
      CHISQ G            -> bar charts of cells in contingency table
      KOLMOGOROV G C15   -> cumulative distributions of C15 in two groups
      COMPONENT G        -> general option for multiple columns of data

      Unless otherwise instructed EASISTAT will write a graph file called
      GRAPH.ME and will ask EASIPLOT to display it. If the G is followed
      immediately (no space) with a filename then EASISTAT will use this
      instead of GRAPH.ME:

      B GFRED.GRP C15    -> creates graph file called FRED.GRP
      CHISQ GRAPH.ME     -> creates graph file called HAPH.ME
      etc.

      3.1  PROBLEMS RUNNING EASIPLOT FROM EASISTAT

      1. You get the following error message:

      Bad command or file name

      This simply means that EASISTAT cannot find EASIPLOT.EXE. The file
      called EASIPLOT.EXE must either be in the current working directory
      or somewhere on the DOS search path. Note that the current working
      directory is most likely to be the one containing your data files

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      and such like, and not necessarily the one containing EASISTAT.EXE
      (at least this is what we suggested in the EASISTAT manual). Either
      you must copy EASIPLOT.EXE into the same directory as the one you
      wish to work in (using the COPY command from DOS), or you must
      change to the correct directory before using EASIPLOT (using the
      CHDIR command). If you have a hard disk then the best solution by
      far is to put EASIPLOT.EXE into a subdirectory which is somewhere on
      the search path - this is usually set up with a PATH command in the
      AUTOEXEC.BAT file, see your DOS manual for details.

      If you get this error message then EASISTAT will still have written
      the correct graph file to disk and there is nothing to stop you
      running EASIPLOT using EASISTAT's SYSTEM command and providing the
      full pathname for EASIPLOT. Here's what we mean:

      Suppose EASIPLOT.EXE and EASISTAT.EXE are on the hard disk C in
      subdirectory STATS, but that the data being studied is on a disk in
      drive A. The best way to start EASISTAT would be as follows:

      A:
      C:\STATS\EASISTAT

      If while using EASISTAT one wants to draw a graph and types

      B GBCOL5.GRP C5

      then EASISTAT will write a graph file called BCOL5.GRP to the disk
      in drive A. It will then try to run EASIPLOT but since EASIPLOT
      isn't on drive A the following error message will appear:

      Bad command or file name

      and one returns to EASISTAT without seeing a graph. But the graph
      file is still there on disk so now one can type:

      SYSTEM C:\STATS\EASIPLOT GBCOL5.GRP

      and the graph will appear.

      2. You get an error message about an unrecognised display type.

      This situation is dealt with in the general section about problems
      with EASIPLOT.

      3. You get some kind of "Out of memory" error message.

      There is not room in your computer's memory for EASISTAT, EASISTAT's
      data, EASIPLOT, EASIPLOT's data and the EASIPLOT's menus all at
      once. Not to worry, the graph file has been safely saved to disk and
      can be displayed later by running EASIPLOT on its own after you have
      quit EASISTAT.

      4. You get an error message from EASIPLOT complaining about the
      syntax of its data.

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                               EASIPLOT.DOC


      We hope you won't get this. EASISTAT should provide files in the
      correct syntax. Check you have not made an error using EASISTAT,
      then try examining the graph file with a word processor or text
      editor to see if you can see what the problem is.

      3.2  THE BASICS FUNCTION

      When the 'G' option is selected from the BASICS function a graph
      file is written to disk containing three columns of figures. In the
      first column is a set of values for the variable studied. The second
      column contains the number of items having that value and the third
      column is a cumulative total of the number of items having the
      stated value or below. The graph when first displayed plots the
      first column along the X axis and the second on the Y axis,
      producing a frequency distribution for the variable. If instead the
      third column is plotted against the first then a cumulative
      distibution is produced. To do this go to the Data menu (type 'D'),
      then select the XY columns option (type '5') and select columns 1
      and 3 (type '1,3' then keep pressing ENTER). The cumulative
      frequency distribution will be displayed. (To see the original graph
      again select columns 1 and 2 to be plotted against each other.)
      Either graph may be displayed as a bar chart instead of a line graph
      by typing 'V' when the main menu is showing. No key is needed for
      this data.

      3.3  THE CHISQ FUNCTION

      The rows and columns of a contingency table are output as the rows
      and columns of a graph file, which then produces a histogram of the
      values of the rows and columns in the contingency table, produced in
      the way described in the EASISTAT documentation. Selecting the
      "Exchange" option (by typing 'X') swaps round whether the values are
      grouped first into rows or first into columns of the table. The
      columns are shaded appropiately and a key is provided.

      3.4  THE ANOVA FUNCTION

      The ANOVA function divides the values up into groups and each value
      goes into a separate row of the graph file, the column it goes in
      being determined by the conditions supplied to the ANOVA function.
      EASIPLOT then groups the data in the graph file by columns and
      displays a vertical scatter chart of points in each group. The mean
      of each group can be displayed as a horizontal line by selecting the
      "Regression and mean" function from the main menu (by typing 'R')
      and then selecting "Toggle mean" (type '3' and then press ENTER).

      3.5  THE REGRESS FUNCTION

      The values of the first variable go into the first column of the graph
      file and those of the second into the second. EASIPLOT plots the
      second value against the first in a scatter diagram. To see the
      regression line select the  "Regression and mean" function from the
      main menu (by typing 'R') and then select "Toggle Y on X" (type '1'

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      and then press ENTER). Selecting "Exchange" (by typing 'X') will
      swap over the two variables.

      3.6  THE KOLMOGOROV FUNCTION

      This graph file is the most complicated. The first column contains
      the values under consideration. The second and sixth columns contain
      the number of items having that value in each of the two groups. The
      third and seventh columns contain the cumulative total of items having
      that value or less, and the fourth and eighth columns contain the
      percentages of each group having a given value and the fifth and
      ninth columns contain the cumulative percentages. EASIPLOT plots the
      fifth and ninth columns against the first to produce two overlaid
      plots of the cumulative percentage totals for each group, expressed
      as a fraction of the total number of items in each group. (The
      Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic is the maximum vertical distance
      between these two lines.) Other interesting plots are of the two
      absolute distributions (type 'D', then '1,2' and '1,6' then ENTER),
      of the two cumulative distributions (type 'D', then '1,3' and '1,7'
      then ENTER) and of the two percentage distributions (type 'D', then
      '1,4' and '1,8' then ENTER). Other combinations can also be plotted.

      3.6  THE COMPONENT FUNCTION

      Unlike the other functions, the graph produced has nothing to do
      with the function itself and indeed if the 'G' option is selected
      with this function then the principal component analysis is not even
      performed. Instead, this syntax is used simply as a convenient way
      to specify a number of columns of data to be written to a graph
      file. Any number of columns can be selected and they are simply
      written into the graph file as they are. By default the first three
      columns are assigned to the X, Y and Z axes of the graph and a
      scatter diagram is drawn but it is anticipated that the data could
      be used in many different ways, including three-dimensional plots
      and multiple X-Y plots. Some examples of the flexibility of this
      command can be seen when PDEMO is used to drive EASISTAT (by running
      EASISTAT and then entering INPUT PDEMO).

      3.8  GENERAL POINTS

      EASIPLOT works well with EASISTAT. EASISTAT is used to produce the
      basic data to be graphed and the titles, graph type and scale can
      then be edited and adjusted by EASIPLOT to produce quite a helpful
      graph. We recommend that you give each graph file a specific name
      (rather than just leaving it to be called GRAPH.ME). Then you can
      produce a number of graph files during a session using EASISTAT and
      afterwards you can use EASIPLOT to "fine-tune" them. EASIPLOT is
      much less robust (more likely to go wrong) than EASISTAT so it is
      advisable to do most of your work with it after, rather than during,
      a session with EASISTAT.

      If you have a large data set then there is unlikely to be room for
      EASIPLOT and EASISTAT to run at once and you will have to just use
      EASISTAT to write graph files to disk and then use EASIPLOT to view

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      them later. If you are running EASISTAT in batch mode (from an input
      file) then when the 'G' option is selected a graph file will be
      written to disk but EASIPLOT will not be run automatically. The
      reason for this is that EASIPLOT runs only in interactive mode (from
      the keyboard) and so it could not be run unattended. If you wish to
      use a command file to display a graph then you can easily do so by
      having it run EASIPLOT explicitly, eg:

      R GTIM C15 C16
      SYSTEM EASIPLOT TIM













































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      Chapter 4          RUNNING EASIPLOT ON ITS OWN

      EASIPLOT can display graph files from any source provided they are
      the right format. They may be produced by EASISTAT or PC-File:dB, or
      they can be typed out by hand.

      To display a graph file with EASIPLOT type:

      EASIPLOT [filename]

      If no file name is given then the name GRAPH.ME is used (so typing
      EASIPLOT on its own if there is no file called GRAPH.ME present will
      produce an error message saying that GRAPH.ME could not be found).

      If the graph file is read in successfully then it will be displayed
      in its default format and the main menu will be shown. The following
      options are available:

      M - hides the menu. To see it again press 'M' again.

      S - Scatter chart. Points are plotted.

      L - Lines are plotted.

      V - Vertical bar charts are shown.

      3 - turns 3-D on and off. The Z axis of the graph is not displayed
      but goes off towards the top right corner of the screen. For line
      and scatter charts points will be plotted in this dimension also.
      For bar charts "blocks" are drawn instead of "bars". Note that
      plotting points in 3 dimensions does not affect the autoscaling
      which EASIPLOT performs, which means that things tend to go off the
      screen. In such a situation the X and Y scales have to be adjusted
      manually to get the graph to the right proportions.

      A - This allows access to the "Axes" menu. The X and Y axis can be
      toggled on or off, as can the ticks and numerical values along the
      axes. The whole graph can be rescaled by changing the maximum and
      minimum values for X and Y, and the increment or distance between
      ticks can also be altered. Enter three values for minimum, maximum
      and increment separated by two commas.

      T - This allows all the different titles to be turned on or off or
      edited. Which titles appear where depends on the type of data being
      displayed and is probably best discovered by a bit of trial and
      error. Special "floating" titles can also be added to the graph -
      these can be made to appear anywhere on the screen and can read left
      to right, upwards, downwards or upside down. To produce a floating
      title first type in the message that you wish to have appear and
      press ENTER and then type in the coordinates and angle for it,
      separated by commas. The graph on the screen occupies the region
      from 0,0 to 1,0.6 and the floating title can begin anywhere within
      this region or within a border 0.1 units wide around it. So the
      first value for the position must be between -0.1 and 1.1 and the

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      second value must be between -0.1 and 0.7 (these values are
      completely independent of the graph scale, the title should always
      appear in the same position on the screen). The values for the
      rotation are in degrees anti-clockwise from the usual left to right.
      If the rotation is omitted it will be taken as zero. So legitimate
      values to input would be "0,0.3,90" or "0.7,-0.05,180" or "-.1,.1".

      R - This allows the mean Y value and regression lines to be toggled
      on and off. In some cases the regression lines would be meaningless
      and so they are drawn in the same place as the mean. "Y on X" means
      "the regression of the Y variable on the X variable".

      X - This exchanges the data plotted in various ways. If the data was
      grouped by columns it will now be grouped by rows and vice versa. If
      it was grouped into rows and then columns it will now be grouped
      into columns and then rows. If pairs of columns were plotted against
      each other as X and Y variables they will be swapped over. Note that
      using this option causes automatic rescaling of the axes.

      D - This option determines how the data in the graph file is
      extracted for graphical representation. Different options are more
      suitable for different types of data. All the values in one column
      or row may be grouped together so that the row or column gives the
      position on the X axis and the value gives the position on the Y
      axis. The row and column may be combined to give the position on the
      X axis, with either the row or column taking priority. Lastly
      columns may be taken in pairs and plotted against each other. An
      indefinite number of pairs of columns may be specified, and all will
      be plotted simultaneously with an appropiate key. For each pair an
      optional third column can be specified (the "Z value"). This
      third column determines the width of the bars in a bar chart,
      allowing variable widths to be used. For scatter and line graphs it
      determines the distance that a point is displaced towards the top
      right of screen. If no third column is specified then all the Z
      values will be equal to the default which is 1. If a negative number
      is given as the third value then this will be used as a constant
      for all the data points (or rather its absolute value will be -
      entering 2,3,-0.5 would plot column three against column two and all
      the columns would have a Z value of 0.5; there is no way to assign a
      negative constant Z value).

      K -  This allows the key to be shown, moved or removed and the
      shading of the graph to be altered. There are five positions for the
      key: top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right and centre. They
      are numbered from one to five in that order. Different numbers for
      the shading produce different types of point, line and bar. These
      are best discovered by trial and error. Selecting a number other than
      zero causes all points to be displayed according to that number.
      Selecting zero (the default) allows points associated with different
      variables to be displayed differently.

      F - This allows the graph to be saved either as a graph file - an
      ASCII file containing all the information required to redisplay it
      almost exactly as it appears on the screen (the only exceptions

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                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      being minor details like the key position and whether axes and
      titles are toggled on or off) - or as a Microsoft Paint file. The
      graph must be saved as a Microsoft Paint file before it can be
      printed out, and this option also means that if you have Microsoft
      Windows and Paint then you can adjust the graph to produce a more
      polished product.

      Q - This option quits EASIPLOT. Be sure to save your work before
      using it.














































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                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      Chapter 5          RUNNING EASIPLOT FROM COMMAND FILES

      It is possible to run EASIPLOT from a command file in a similar way
      to EASISTAT, although the procedure is not quite so straightforward.
      The main purpose is so that graphs can automatically be modified and
      saved in Microsoft Paint format from batch files, and if you
      familiar with the use of batch files you may find this feature
      helpful.

      To use a command file you must run EASIPLOT as follows:

      EASIPLOT graphfile commandfile

      The command file contains the keys that you would press to use
      EASIPLOT interactively. Where EASIPLOT is just asking for one key to
      be pressed at a time then a number of letters can all be put on one
      line. Where EASIPLOT is asking for a whole line of information then
      this must be entered in the command file on a new line. The underline
      symbol '_' has the same effect as pushing the ENTER key and the caret
      symbol '^' has the same effect as pushing the ESCAPE key.

      Example command file:

      mk1
      a567
      0,0.5,0.1
      0,2,1
      _
      F1
      fred.msp
      _

      The first line turns off the main menu and toggles off the key. The
      end of the line has the same effect as pushing ENTER and so the Key
      menu is left and one returns to the main menu. Then the Axis menu is
      selected, the X and Y scales are toggled on and the option to
      rescale the axes is selected. The third and fourth lines then
      provide the new X and Y scales. The underscore provides an ENTER to
      leave the Axis menu and return to the main menu. F1 selects the
      File menu and the option to save in MSP format and the next line
      gives the filename to use. The final underscore acts as an ENTER to
      leave the file menu. When there is nothing left in the command file
      control returns to the user, although the command file could finish
      with a Q (for quit) in which case EASIPLOT would finish and control
      could return to DOS or a batch file from which it was called.

      There is another example of the use of a command file in the
      demonstration PLOTDEMO.BAT. It creates a file called TEMP.JF by
      using the DOS ECHO command and you may want to examine this file.

      Using command files with EASIPLOT is difficult, and you probably
      will not want to do it until you have become quite familiar with the
      program through using it interactively.


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                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      Chapter 6          FORMAT OF GRAPH FILES

      EASIPLOT graph files are simple ASCII files containing information
      describing the data to be printed arranged in the following way.

      Optional:

      One line beginning PARMS: followed by L, V or S for line,
      vertical bar or scatter chart.

      Optional:

      Up to two lines beginning TITLE: followed by the main title for the
      graph.

      Optional:

      One line beginning TITLEV: followed by a title for the vertical axis
      of the graph (in certain data groupings).

      Optional:

      One line beginning TITLEC: followed by an overall title for the row
      variables of the data.

      Obligatory:

      Lines beginning TITLEG:. There must be one more such line than there
      are columns of data. The first TITLEG: may optionally be followed by
      an overall title for the column variables. The second TITLEG: may
      optionally be followed by a title for the first column of data, the
      third TITLEG: can have a title for the second column, etc.

      All the above lines must appear before any lines containing data
      values.

      Obligatory:

      Lines containing data values. These are numbers separated by commas.
      There must be no comma after the last number. Missing values are
      recognised as such. Optionally after the last number a colon may
      appear, followed by a title for the variable that that row
      represents.

      All of the following lines are not comaptible with PCG2, the
      graphing program supplied with PC-File:dB. You may wish to use this
      program instead of EASIPLOT to display some of your graphs because
      it can produce pie charts and better looking titles. If so you must
      delete all the following lines from your graph files.

      Optional:

      A line beginning DATATYPE: followed immediately by either GRC or GCR
      or GR or GC or XY, meaning group by rows and columns, or by columns

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                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      and rows, or by rows, or by columns, or plot pairs of columns
      against each other. In the last case only, more than one such line
      can be used and the XY must be followed by numbers separated by
      commas and specifying the X and Y and optionally Z variables.

      Optional:

      Lines each beginning MINX: or MAXX: or XINC: of MINY: or MAXY: or
      YINC: specifying the minimum, maximum and increments of the X and Y
      values when they are first displayed.

      Optional: Lines beginning TITLEF: followed by three numbers
      separated by commas specifying the X and Y coordinates and rotation
      of a floating title, followed by a comma and the title itself.

      Example graph file (unnecessarily silly):

      PARMS:V
      TITLE:First title line
      TITLE:Second title line
      TITLEV:Vertical title up Y axis
      TITLEG:Title for column variables
      TITLEG:First column
      TITLEG:Second column
      TITLEG:Third column
      2,1,3:First row
      4,8,4:Second row
      27,14,6:Third row
      7,18,7:Fourth row
      4,15,9:Fifth row
      MINX:0
      MAXX:18.5
      XINC:1
      MINY:0
      MAXY:27
      YINC:1
      DATATYPE:XY2,1
      DATATYPE:XY3,1,-0.5
      TITLEF:0.1,0.1,90,Here is a floating title
      TITLEF:0.2,0.2,0,Here is another















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                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      Chapter 6          PRINTING GRAPHS

      Before a graph can be printed it must be saved to disk as a
      Microsoft Paint file using option 1 from the "Files" menu. If you
      are going to use it with Microsoft paint the name you give it must
      end in the extension .MSP, but otherwise you can call it whatever
      you like. Then leave EASIPLOT.

      If you own Microsoft Windows and Paint then you can read in the file
      with Paint, alter it if you want and then print it out in the normal
      way.

      If you do not own Microsoft Paint then you can print out the saved
      file directly from disk to an Epson-compatible dot-matrix printer
      using a small program supplied called PRMSP.EXE. To use it,
      supposing you have saved your graph picture with the name SAVED.MSP
      you should type:

      PRMSP SAVED.MSP

      and the file will be printed.

      The full details of the options available with PRMSP are as follows:

      PRMSP infile.msp [outfile.prn] [/switch1] [/switch2] ... [/switchn]

      All the parameters are separated from each other by spaces:

      infile.msp - the name of the saved MSP file to be printed out.

      outfile.prn - the name of a file to be printed to. This is optional
      and if no name is given then the printer will be used instead.

      /I - this switch means print to an IBM-compatible printer instead of
      an Epson-compatible printer.

      /P - this switch means print the graph in "portrait" orientation -
      down the page - instead of the default "landscape" orientation -
      across the page.

      /H - high density - will work only with Epson-compatible 24-pin
      printer to give a picture three times smaller than above, going
      down the page.

      /D - draught mode - should be quicker but lower quality.

      /Snumber - this switch means print "number" spaces before each line
      of the picture - use it to control where the graph appears on the
      page. The default is 6.

      /Lnumber - this switch controls the line spacing on the printer, as
      used by the ESC A command. By default "number" is set to 8, but if
      the lines of your graph come out separated or overlapping, then
      using this switch may help you to adjust the line-spacing to produce

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                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      a better picture.

      /Fnumber - this switch lets you determine whether a line feed (new
      line) character is sent to your printer with each carriage return
      character. If number is 0 then no line feed is sent, if it is 1 then
      a line feed is sent. The default is 1. If your graph comes out
      "double-spaced" - with gaps between each line - then specifying /F0
      may cure the problem.

      Example use of PRMSP:

      PRMSP ANOVA.MSP TEMP.PRN /S12 /I

      The file ANOVA.MSP would be printed out to the file TEMP.PRN, in a
      format suitable for sending to an IBM-compatible printer. Then
      later TEMP.PRN could be printed by entering:

      PRINT TEMP.PRN

      The advantage of this is that by using the DOS PRINT command
      printing occurs in background - you can get on with other things
      while the graph is being printed.

      Note: PRMSP cannot work if your computer does not send 8 data bits
      to the printer. This is sometimes altered by the MODE command which
      is usually in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file - see your DOS manual for
      details - and it is especially likely to have been used if your
      printer is on a serial cable rather than the ordinary "Centronics"
      parallel cable. Also make sure that your printer is set to receive 8
      bits rather than 7 - see your printer manual if you have problems.

























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                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      Chapter 7          PROBLEMS WITH EASIPLOT

      EASIPLOT is released as a protoype version so that users of EASISTAT
      can display their data graphically. EASIPLOT is not therefore as
      polished or user-friendly as we would like, but it is nevertheless
      functional. It is not as robust as EASISTAT and may crash
      gracelessly if it is mistreated. It will not be able to deal with
      huge amounts of data, and there are probably things which you would
      like it to do but which it cannot. The amount of extra work we put
      into EASIPLOT depends largely on how many people become registered
      users of EASISTAT and EASIPLOT - if nobody pays up then we won't
      spend a lot of our time adding bells and whistles to these programs,
      which we think would be a pity.

      The most likely problem to run into is that you will get an error
      message saying that EASIPLOT does not recognise the display device
      attached to your computer. This is the kind of monitor that you have
      (or rather the kind of display card that the monitor plugs into).
      This is a problem which you will either get straight away or never -
      you can't have it some days and not others. If EASIPLOT manages to
      draw any kind of graph on your screen then it has recognised the
      display OK and you can move on. If it draws nothing and maybe gives
      you the error message then here's what you have you to do. You have
      to set an environment variable to the name of your display type. To
      do this, before you run EASIPLOT or EASISTAT type the following
      line:

      SET FG_DISPLAY=xxxx

      except instead of xxxx type one of the following:

      HERC
      CGAHIRES
      EGAECD
      VGA11
      VGA12
      EGAMONO
      EGACOLOR
      TOSHIBA
      8514A

      Which one you type depends on the kind of display you have which you
      will have to determine from reading your computer manual or by
      asking your supplier. So if you have a Hercules-compatible display
      you would type:

      SET FG_DISPLAY=HERC

      and if you had a CGA display you would type:

      SET FG_DISPLAY=CGAHIRES

      and so on.


                                    19




                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      If you can't work out what sort of display you have you will have to
      try each in turn until you find one which makes EASIPLOT work. You
      only have to set the display type once each time your computer is
      turned on, so when you've find the right command you should put it
      into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

      Another possible problem with EASIPLOT is that it fails with an "Out
      of memory" message of one sort or another. If this happens we
      recommend that you consult the chapter in the EASISTAT manual which
      deals with such problems and try the same approach as described
      there.

      If EASIPLOT exits as soon as it tries to read the graph file with a
      complaint about too many values or titles in the wrong place, then
      check the file carefully according to the specification described
      in the previous chapter.

      Certain kinds of graph will confuse EASIPLOT. For instance if you
      produce data from an ANOVA test and then plot column X against
      column Y it is certain that no row will have a value in both column
      X and Y at the same time - one or both will be missing. Doing this
      sort of thing will certainly confuse EASIPLOT, so we advise you to
      try to avoid it.
































                                    20




                               EASIPLOT.DOC

      Chapter 8                   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


      EASIPLOT was programmed by Dave Curtis in C and was compiled with
      the Zortech compiler. DESQview is a trademark of Quarterdeck Office
      Systems. Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Paint are trademarks of
      Microsoft Corporation. IBM and PC are trademarks of International
      Business Machines Corporation. PC-File:dB and PCG2 are trademarks of
      Buttonware Incorporated.














































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