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:
- Ease of implementation and updating. Dataplot source code
does not have to be modified to change a menu, only an
ASCII text file.
- 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:
- "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.
- "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.
- "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.
- "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.
- "Prob" - this menu is used for probability functions
(pdf, cdf, ppf, probability plots, etc.). This menu is
essentially complete.
- "Math" - this menu is used for various mathematical functions.
This menu is essentially complete.
- "OneVari" - this menu, added for the 2/2000 version, allows you
to initiate many common univariate plots and analyses with a
single mouse click.
- "Browser" - this menu is used to set the web browser
(defaults to netscape) you prefer to use. This menu is
essentially complete.
- "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.
- "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.
- "HomePage" - this menu is used to access the Dataplot
web site and is currently active.
- "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.
- "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.
- "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.
- "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.
- "Stat" - this menu is used for basic statistical
calculations. This menu is essentially complete. A few
menus under multivariate analysis still need work.
- "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.
- "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).
- "TwoVari" - this menu, added for the 2/2000 version, allows you
to initiate many common bivariate plots and analyses with a
single mouse click.
- "Roadmap" - this menu is intended for guidance. This menu is
mostly complete.
NOTE: 2/2000. The "Homogeneity" menu is the only that is
not done.
- "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.
- "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.
- "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.
- "Exit" - this menu is used to exit the Dataplot GUI.
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