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- Path: altitude!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!munnari.oz.au!csc.anu.oz.au!myb100
- From: myb100@csc.anu.oz.au
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech
- Subject: Image displays: Mainframe->Amiga: PAWSDisp
- Message-ID: <1990Sep21.160213.2884@csc.anu.oz.au>
- Date: 21 Sep 90 06:02:13 GMT
- Organization: Computer Services, Australian National University
- Lines: 201
-
-
- [What follows is an edited version of the PAWSDisp readme file]
-
- Do you have images on your mainframe computer (Sun or Vax), an Amiga
- sitting on your desk, and a serial line connecting the two ? Or, instead
- of images, any two-dimensional data/model, whatever. If you would like
- to be able to display these images on your Amiga, read on.
-
- Announcing the first external release of:
-
- PAWSDisp 1.40 : 18 September 1990 - Markus Buchhorn
-
-
- What is PAWS ?
- ==============
-
- PAWS = Personal Astronomical WorkStation.
-
- PAWS is a terminal emulation program for Commodore Amigas. It runs on all
- models (A500/A1000/A2000/A2500 - and we have no reason to believe it
- shouldn't run on the A3000) It was written by Dr Ken J. Mighell, who is
- (at time of writing this) a Post Doc at Mount Stromlo Observatory, Canberra,
- Australia. The PAWS executable is freely distributable. The PAWS source
- and PAWS-Language documentation is available for (some quantity of money)-
- contact Ken at mighell@mso.anu.oz.au
-
- PAWS provides a three screen device: A VT100, A Tek4010 and an image display
- screen, (no particular emulation) programmable with Tek4010 commands. The VT100
- is Dave Wecker's VT100 2.4. The Tek4010 is a fixed two-colour 640x400 screen.
- The Image display screen is 320x200 , 32 colours, 4 of which are used by the
- system, leaving 28 for the actual image. PAWS provides 3 colour tables you
- can choose from, swapping at any time you like, also flipping and rotating of
- the colour table is possible.
-
- PAWS is a programmable emulator. It uses the PAWS Language to move between
- screens, clear screens, display a row of pixel data, draw lines, etc. Much of
- this is based on TEK4010 codes. All data transfer is done over the serial line.
- This means that PAWS can be run over a modem. It uses a clever compression
- technique to send data over the serial line, and the Amiga decompresses this
- and displays it. This means that PAWS runs at quite a respectable rate over
- 9600 baud lines, and you can cope quite well with just 2400 baud. Unless you
- have Ethernet/etc., you'll be stepping up ! :-)
-
- Anybody can write programs in Fortran/C/Pascal/whatever that program PAWS,
- using the PAWS_LIB library. You can thus tailor your programs to do whatever
- you want.
-
- What is PAWSDisp ?
- ==================
-
- PAWSDisp provides a standard interface for PAWS image displays. It provides a
- large number of image manipulation/analysis features, together with a very
- flexible usage: The user provides the header program to read data in, and then
- calls PAWSDisp as outlined below. PAWS and PAWSDisp were written with Astronomy
- in mind. Hence, it provides features to speed up data reduction. For the
- Astronomers out there, we currently have headers for
-
- (1) FIGARO, (VAX and Sun)
- (2) Mike Cawson's GASP, (VAX)
- (3) IRAF (Sun)
- (4) Starlink BDF (VAX)
- (5) Diskfits (Sun)
-
- [Still to come: STSDAS, MIDAS .bdf, PANDORA .sad, NCSA .hdf, Poskanzer's PBM,
- anything else that comes along...?]
-
- But PAWSDisp is not just for Astronomers. Anybody with images on a mainframe
- that they want to look at can use PAWS. And not just images. If you have
- a scientific model, say, with three parameters: Put two of them as coordinates
- on a grid, and make the third one an intensity. Treat that as an image and
- display it/print it. This is a *very* effective way of presenting data/models.
-
- Installing and using PAWSDisp:
- ==============================
-
- Given that you have some image data, you need to write a small program to
- do the following:
-
- Read your data (nx,ny) into a real*4 2D array, of size xlim,ylim.
- [...]
- The name of the file is 'frame' which is used as the root for files generated
- by PAWSDisp (NB This can include the path! Take care!). You can define a PAL
- or NTSC display on the subroutine call.
-
- Hence:
-
- integer xlim,ylim,nx,ny
- real*4 image(xlim,ylim)
- character frame
-
- [...]
-
- CALL pawsdisp(image,xlim,ylim,nx,ny,frame,'PAL','ERASE')
- [...]
- end
-
- simple, really.... :-) (the 'ERASE' indicates the screen should be wiped
- when PAWSDisp first starts up)
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- A very brief description of the commands
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The standard PAWS commands - all implemented (LUT=Look-up table)
-
- ALT 1 = go to vt100 window ALT ! = erase vt100 window
- ALT 2 = go to tek window ALT @ = erase tek window
- ALT 3 = go to image window ALT # = erase image window
- ALT F = flip color table ALT L = change color table
- ALT R = toggle LUT rotation ALT W = display color table
- ALT T = toggle window title
-
- PAWSDisp commands. Note that (except where given) most of these commands
- are case-insensitive. Any keystroke not listed here will just measure the
- data value wherever the cursor currently is. (I recommend using the
- space-bar for this.)
-
- ?-/ = Type the help menu Q = Quit
- C = Clip LUT F = Fold LUT
- S = Set LUT limits by hand R = Auto-set LUT
- T = Toggle data header L = Toggle log. scale
- X = Flip image in X Y = Flip image in Y
- Z = Zoom onto image A = Display whole image
- d-D = Zoom out by 1-3 i-I = Zoom in by 1-3
- G = Zoom in or out by a factor of 2
- \ = List info of image N = Refresh the screen
-
- h-H = horizontal spectrum v-V = vertical spectrum
-
- These produce binned spectra of the image, sliced in x (h/H) or in y (v/V).
- The Tektronix screen has three options: q-to quit,|-for PS output (see below)
- and any other key will measure the point, with the output going to the VT100
- screen.
-
- | = Screen -> PostScript
-
- '|' (the UNIX pipe symbol) will produce a file of the image you can print on
- laserwriters. It only contains that part of the image that is currently on
- screen, in the same orientation, same greyscale (+/- laserwriter quality).
- Also includes the icon (if up) along with the 'you are here' box, and
- writes up a header line, plus any comments you might like to add.
-
- The same command given on the Tektronix (spectrum) display will produce a
- PostScript file of the plot. It allows you to add your own labels for the
- axes and the main label, in addition to the information header. It's fairly
- simple PS (witness who wrote it :-) ) so if you want to rearrange stuff
- afterwards, change labels, etc., it's very easy.
-
- W = Write points to file
- P = pan / finder chart O = set panscreen LUT
-
- Produces an iconic form of the image, indicating current screen. If you select
- a point *on* the icon, that becomes the new center - shifts the image to there,
- while conserving the zoom. This allows you to move around very quickly.
- 'P' again removes the panscreen. The greyscale on the panscreen is the default
- one it starts with, which is sometimes wrong - the 'O' command will let you set
- it interactively.
-
- B = histogram plot of pixel values
- U = change icon size
- E = expand the image in y
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- To Do Yet:
-
- - Allow arrays for conversion of pixel values to other values,
- e.g. wavelength scale, intensity scale...
- - Allow for batch-mode operation...
- - Arbitrary direction slices, with input slit width.
- - More ILASER-ish like output for the Postscript image output. (i.e. tickmarks.)
- - Flip the Tek(and TPS)-spectrum in x or y if the image itself is flipped.
- - Improve the label positioning on the Tek/TPS output - still kinda screwy now.
- - Suggestions ????
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- So, where do I get it ?
- =======================
-
- Anonymous ftp from merlin.anu.oz.au [130.56.4.215] in the directory
- pub/PAWS_Sun or pub/PAWS_Vax
-
- There are differences between the two machines that I won't go into. Take the
- one appropriate to your machine.
-
- There is also a header program for IRAF images in the PAWS_Sun directory.
- Others are available - mail me if you want them, or need help writing your own.
-
- Please remember that we are GMT+10hrs here at the moment - keep your ftp'ing
- to a quiet time of our day please, if possible.
-
- Have fun !
- Cheers,
- Markus
-
- ===============================================================================
- Markus Buchhorn /// | This space
- Mt Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, Canberra /// |
- PMB Weston Ck. P.O. A.C.T. 2611, Australia \\\/// | intentionally
- markus@mso.anu.oz.au -or- nssdca::psi%mssso::markus \XX/ | left blank
- ===============================================================================
-