Dataplot Installation Instructions for MacOS Assuming Homebrew is Installed

Alan Heckert Statistical Engineering Division National Institute Of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8980 (301) 975-2899 or FTS 879-2899 alan.heckert@nist.gov

Jim Filliben (deceased)

https://brew.sh/

As noted on the homepage.htm page, Homebrew requires that a current version of Xcode and the command line tools for Xcode be installed on your MacOS.

Note that Homebrew has changed the installation location for the M1 chipset. For the Intel chipset, Homebrew installs to "/usr/local" while for the M1 chipset Homebrew installs to "/opt/brew". For this reason, we have created separate Makefiles for Intel and M1 chipsets.

Assuming that you have Homebrew installed, you can install the following dependencies (some of these are optional). Also, the basic command for Homebrew installations is "/opt/homebrew/bin/brew". If you have not added "/opt/homebrew/bin" to your path, then you need to use "/opt/homebrew/bin/brew" for the "brew" commands given here.

• gfortran/gcc

  Since Dataplot is currently built from source, installing gcc and gfortran is required. To install gcc and gfortran, enter

  brew install gcc

  Installing gcc should also include gfortran.

• X11

  Dataplot can use X11 for generating screen graphics when Dataplot is initiated from an X11 xterm window.

  Homebrew uses XQuartz for X11. You can install XQuartz in either of the following two ways.

  1. You can install XQuartz directly. See
     https://www.xquartz.org

     This page provides a ".dmg" file to download and install.

  2. You can install XQuartz using Homebrew. If you have not installed Homebrew Cask, enter
     brew cask install xquartz

     Then enter

     brew install --cask xquartz

  This should also install the xft library.

  Although X11 is not strictly required, it is currently the only way to get screen graphics with the M1 chipset. If you have the Intel chipset, you should install either X11 or Aquaterm (or both).

• Aquaterm

  Homebrew uses the version of Aquaterm that is available on github. However, this version currently (as of 01/31/2024) only seems to support the Intel chipset. So for now, only install Aquaterm if you have the Intel chipset. To install Aquaterm from Homebrew, enter

  brew install --cask aquaterm

  Although Aquaterm is not strictly required, it is recommended if you have the Intel chipset.

• GD

  The GD graphics library is used to generate plots in the jpeg, png, gif, bmp, wbmp, and tiff image formats. You can also read images in these formats. To install GD from Homebrew, enter

  brew install gd

  This is an optional feature.

• cairo

  The Cairo graphics library can be used to generate plots in a number of different formats (X11, Postscript, PDF, SVG or jpeg/png/gif). To install Cairo from Homebrew, enter

  brew install cairo

  This is an optional feature.

• readline

  Homebrew uses the version of readline that comes with MacOS. Dataplot is currently incompatible with this version, so do not install readline if you are using Homebrew.

• libplot

  This is an older graphics library supported under Unix/Linux. Dataplot uses libplot to support some additional graphics formats not otherwise supported (netPBM bitmap, Adobe Illustrator, binary CGM, xfig). To install libplot from MacPorts, enter

  brew install plotutils

  This is an optional feature. Unless you have a particular need for one of the above graphics drivers you can probably skip this.

• tcl/tk

  Dataplot implements its GUI using the Tcl/Tk scripting language.

  The ActiveState web site provides a MacOS specific version of Tcl/Tk that has a Mac look and feel. However, the Dataplot GUI does not work well with the ActiveState MacOS specific version, so the Homebrew version is recommended. To install the MacPorts version of tcl/tk, enter

  brew install tcl-tk

  If you are not interested in the GUI, you can skip this feature.

• ghostscript

  Ghostscript is a Postscript interpreter that can be used to convert Postscript output to other formats. Specifically, it can convert Dataplot Postscript output to PDF format.

  brew install ghostscript

  Ghostscript is independent of Dataplot. However, since Dataplot's primary graphics output format is Postscript it can be useful to have Ghostscript installed. Likewise, it may be convenient to install one of the Postscript/PDF viewers. For example, evince can be installed with

  brew install evince

  The okular viewer does not seem to be currently supported in Homebrew.

https://github.com/usnistgov/dataplot

Select the "Clone or Download" menu and then select the "Download ZIP" text. This will save the file

dataplot-master.zip

Move this file to a convenient location on your system and then enter

unzip dataplot-master.zip

cd src
cp Makefile.mac_homebrew_intel Makefile

Check the following lines in the Makefile

1. The "PREFIX=$(DESTDIR)/usr/local" line. This will install Dataplot to the "/usr/local" directories. If you want to install to a different directory, modify this line to the preferred location.

2. The line "FEATURES = GD TIFF CAIRO X11 PLOT AQUA HOMEBREW" specifies what dependencies you have installed.

   You should remove any features where you did not install the dependencies. If you did not install GD, remove GD and TIFF. If you did not install CAIRO, remove CAIRO. If you did not install X11, remove X11. If you did not install libplot, remove PLOT. If you did not install Aquaterm, remove AQUA.

The INSTALL file provides additional detail (e.g., if you want to build a version that can handle larger data set sizes). However, in most cases you should not need to modify anything other than the PREFIX and FEATURES lines.

After making any needed modifications to the Makefile, enter

make

If the Makefile does not show any errors, then do

make install

If you set the PREFIX line to a location that requires root permissions, then enter

sudo make install

cd src
cp Makefile.mac_homebrew_m1 Makefile

Check the following lines in the Makefile

1. The "PREFIX=$(DESTDIR)/opt/homebrew" line. This will install Dataplot to the "/opt/homebrew" directories. If you want to install to a different directory, modify this line to the preferred location.

2. The line "FEATURES = GD TIFF CAIRO X11 PLOT HOMEBREW" specifies what dependencies you have installed.

   You should remove any features where you did not install the dependencies. If you did not install GD, remove GD and TIFF. If you did not install CAIRO, remove CAIRO. If you did not install X11, remove X11. If you did not install libplot, remove PLOT.

The INSTALL file provides additional detail (e.g., if you want to build a version that can handle larger data set sizes). However, in most cases you should not need to modify anything other than the PREFIX and FEATURES lines.

After making any needed modifications to the Makefile, enter

make

If the Makefile does not show any errors, then do

make install

If you set the PREFIX line to a location that requires root permissions, then enter

sudo make install

dataplot
device 1 x11
call minitest.dp
exit

If you installed Aquaterm, open a MacOS terminal window and enter the following commands.

dataplot
device 1 aquaterm
call minitest.dp
exit

Even if you only intend to use the GUI version, I recommend testing the command line version first since the GUI version is in fact running the command line version.

Be sure that the directory containing the Dataplot executable is in your path. For the default locations, enter the following

set path=(/opt/homebrew/bin $path) (for M1 chipset)
set path=(/usr/local/bin $path) (for Intel chipset)

For the Bourne shell, the comparable line for the .bashrc file is

PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH; export PATH (for M1 chipset)
PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH; export PATH (for Intel chipset)

xdataplot

• The "/opt/homebrew/lib/dataplot/dplogf.tex" (or "/usr/local/lib/dataplot/dplogf.tex" for the Intel chipset) file contains a default startup file that will be executed when you initiate Dataplot. This is an ASCII file containing Dataplot commands that is useful for specifying your own defaults for Dataplot. After you become more familiar with Dataplot, you may want to view this file to see if you would like to modify it for your own preferences.

  If you would like to create your own custom file, then do the following

  cp /opt/homebrew/lib/dataplot/dplogf.tex ~/dplogf.tex or
  cp /usr/local/lib/dataplot/dplogf.tex ~/dplogf.tex or
  

  Then edit ~/dplogf.tex using any ASCII editor. If you have a dplogf.tex file in your home directory, this will override the system version.

  How much you would like to utilize dplogf.tex is a personal preference.

• The "/opt/homebrew/lib/dataplot/frscript/xdpConfig" (or "/usr/local/lib/dataplot/frscript/xdpConfig if you use the Intel chipset) file is a configuration file for the GUI. In general, you will not need to edit this file. However, if you would like to create your own custom version, then
  cp /opt/homebrew/lib/dataplot/frscript/xdpConfig ~/xdpConfig or
  cp /usr/local/lib/dataplot/frscript/xdpConfig ~/xdpConfig
  

  This is an ASCII file so edit ~/xdpConfig using your preferred ASCII editor. As with dplogf.tex, a copy of xdpConfig in your home directory will override the system version. See the comments in xdpConfig for guidance in editing this file.