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Dataplot Graphical User Interface

Introduction Dataplot was originally designed and developed as a command language. Although the command line version is still quite useful, new users and those who use Dataplot infrequently often prefer a mouse driven graphical interface. A graphical user interface (also referred to as the GUI or graphical front-end or front-end) has been implemented using the Tcl/Tk scripting language. Note that on Linux/Unix systems, the GUI will also use the Expect scripting language if it is available. However, Expect is not required. The Tcl/Tk software needs to be installed on your system (it will frequently already be installed on many Linux/Unix platforms) before trying to use the Dataplot GUI.

The GUI is available for the following platforms:

  1. Linux/Unix systems that support X Windows.
  2. For Mac OS X I recommend building Tcl/Tk from the Linux source rather than using the Mac binary version.

  3. PCs running Windows XP/VISTA/7/8.
Developmemnt of the Tcl/Tk Based GUI Essentially Complete The development of the Tcl/Tk based Dataplot GUI is essentially complete. Although a few enhancements will still be made to the contents of the GUI menus, most of these enhancements will simply be adding support for new Dataplot commands. We may make improvements to the Tcl/Tk scripts (i.e., to the appearance and functionality of the menus), but we anticipate these will be minor.
A useful feature of the Dataplot GUI is that it seamlessly mixes menu and command modes. You can enter a Dataplot command at any time in a special command line window. The GUI executes the command upon receiving a carriage return (or when you click the OK button).
Contents We discuss the following topics for the GUI:

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Date created: 06/05/2001
Last updated: 09/20/2016

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