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Status of GUI Menus

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Status of GUI Menus

The Dataplot GUI menu files are ASCII files. We are currently working to make the menu system complete. The purpose of this page is to give an indication of what is currently available and what remains to be done. The current version of the GUI now identifies unavailable menus with a "-".

The status below indicates completeness in terms of capabilities that are currently available in Dataplot. It does not include capabilities that we will add to the underlying Dataplot code in future releases.

The use of ASCII text files to drive the GUI provides the following advantages:

  1. Ease of implementation and updating. Dataplot source code does not have to be modified to change a menu, only an ASCII text file.
  2. Easy extensibility. A local site can easily modify the menus to incorporate analyses appropriate to the local site.

    We will provide documentation for doing this customization after we have a reasonably complete menu system in place.

Status

The following information is applicaple to the 2/15/2000 version of the menus.

The top level menu has been re-arranged and modifed for the 2/2000 version. The top level menus are as follows:

Top level menu

  1. "Files/Data" - this menu is used to view and load data files and to work with data (transformations, defining the work-space dimensions, deleting variables, etc.).

    This menu is essentially complete. We may add additional interesting data sets over time.

  2. "Plot" - this menu is used for plotting. This menu is essentially complete.

    NOTE 6/15/98: Some additions were made to the "Reliability" plots submenu. The new additions utilize new Dataplot code updates, so a current Dataplot executable is also required.
    NOTE: 8/8/1998: Added a scatter plot matrix menu to the multivariate plots. NOTE: 2/2000: re-arranged the top level menu somewhat. Added support for some plot formats that were recently incorporated into Dataplot. Most importantly, scatter plot matrices and conditional plots are now built-in commands rather than macros.

  3. "PlotMod" - this menu is used for plot modification. It can be used to set legends, titles, grids, and so forth. This menu is essentially complete.
  4. "DiagGraph" - this menu is used for generating diagrammatic graphics. This is used to draw text, lines, boxes, and various other geometric figures. This menu is essentially complete.
  5. "Prob" - this menu is used for probability functions (pdf, cdf, ppf, probability plots, etc.). This menu is essentially complete.
  6. "Math" - this menu is used for various mathematical functions. This menu is essentially complete.
  7. "OneVari" - this menu, added for the 2/2000 version, allows you to initiate many common univariate plots and analyses with a single mouse click.
  8. "Browser" - this menu is used to set the web browser (defaults to netscape) you prefer to use. This menu is essentially complete.
  9. "Help" - this menu is used to describe the various types of help avaialble within the GUI. It also accesses the on-line ASCII help files. It is essentially complete.
  10. "Handbook" - this menu is a link to a NIST/SEMATECH Engineering Statistics Handbook.
    NOTE: This menu has been partially upgraded for the 2/2000 release. Specifically, it provides more specific links to the Handbook. It also provides menus for Dataplot commands that implement techniques discussed in the Handbook. There are links to all the main chapters in the Handbook. About half the chapters have more detailed submenus available. Also, the other main menus are being upgraded to provide links to the Handbook where appropriate.
  11. "HomePage" - this menu is used to access the Dataplot web site and is currently active.
  12. "Classes" - this menu is used to support various statistics classes at NIST. This menu is in its beginning stages (primarily, what is available is numerous worked examples of ANOVA).
    NOTE 8/8/1998: This menu was moved under the "NIST" menu.
  13. "Qual/SPC" - this menu is used for statistical control charts. The primary capability, i.e. generating control charts, is active. A few "help" menus need to be filled in, but the action menus are essentially finished.
  14. "DEX" - this menu is used for design of experiments. This menu is partially complete. The screening designs, comparative designs, "2**k Full Factorial Designs", and "2**(k-p) Fractional Factorial Design" menus are essentially done. The Taguchi, Plackett-Burman, and regression designs mostly need some tweaking of the "help" menus. The response surface designs and mixture designs still need signicant work (this involves code updates as well as menu updates).
    NOTE: 2/2000: The response surface menu has been updated (the "Help" text needs some polishing). Some new plot types (DEX Contour plots, Yates cube plots) are now supported. At this time, the main hole is for Mixture dedsigns (and this is waiting for some Dataplot code updates). Some of the help menus still need polishing.
  15. "Fit" - this menu is used for fitting. This menu is partially done.
    NOTE: 8/8/1998: This menu has been substantially upgraded. It is now essentially complete. The one exception is the "Calibration" menu under the Special Topics menu. A few discussion menus need a little polishing and a few minor updates will added in the next upgrade.
  16. "Stat" - this menu is used for basic statistical calculations. This menu is essentially complete. A few menus under multivariate analysis still need work.
  17. "Rel/Extr" - this menu is used for reliability and extreme value analysis. This menu is most of the way done. We need to add some code updates to handle censored data better.
  18. "TimeSeries" - this menu is used for time series analysis. This menu is most of the way done. What is still missing: fitting Box-Jenkins ARMA models (needs code updates first), modeling seasonal effects. Also, the 2-series menu is still pretty sketchy.
    NOTE: 2/2000. The ARMA fitting capability is now available. This menu is now essentially complete. Updates to multivariate time series will depend on code updates to Dataplo first (and this is not currently a high priority).
  19. "TwoVari" - this menu, added for the 2/2000 version, allows you to initiate many common bivariate plots and analyses with a single mouse click.
  20. "Roadmap" - this menu is intended for guidance. This menu is mostly complete.
  21. NOTE: 2/2000. The "Homogeneity" menu is the only that is not done.

  22. "Manual" - this menu is used to access the on-line Reference Manual. You need a web browser and a PDF (Portable Document Format) reader in order to access the on-line Reference Manual. This menu is essentially complete.
  23. "NIST" - this menu is used to support NIST specific menus. For those who are interested in making local site specific menus, this is a good place to do it. This menu is in its beginning stages (although this is primarily of interest to NIST users).
    NOTE 9/10/1998: This menu was significantly revised. The main feature of interest is the the "worked examples" sections under the "EDA class" and "ANOVA class" menus.
  24. "Interp" - this menu is in its beginning stages.
    NOTE 8/8/1998: This menu item has been temporarily removed. It may be re-instated at a later date if we have a chance to work on it.
  25. "Exit" - this menu is used to exit the Dataplot GUI.

Date created: 6/5/2001
Last updated: 6/25/2001
Please email comments on this WWW page to alan.heckert@nist.gov.