[OS X TeX] [Sort-of Off]: Plotting Software

[Adam R. Maxwell]

On Mar 6, 2006, at 21:01, david craig wrote:

> What do folks recommend for plotting/fitting software?  I'm really  
> liking how "Plot" is shaping up, and I admit I'm weary of ports of  
> gnuplot and the like, and especially anything with no GUI.  I ask  
> both for myself, and to use with upper-level undergraduate courses.
>
> I'm willing to consider a license or two of something expensive [my  
> colleague Gordon would be butting in here with "Igor!  Igor!"], but  
> I am particularly interested in cheap/free/gpl-type software that  
> can be widely distributed in student labs and the like.

You need Igor :).  Wavemetrics has a classroom license that might be  
worth looking into, and their student price is excellent.  If you  
want no-cost+GUI, Plot is probably your best choice on the Mac.

> I hate to add this, but I'm especially interested in what free/gpl/ 
> whatever type software might be a good choice for Windows, since  
> that's what's in a lot of the student labs here.  (Cross platform  
> file format would be keen, therefore, but not absolutely essential.)

Igor and Matlab are cross-platform; Kaleidagraph may be, but I  
haven't used it in years.

Good plotting software costs money, and it's generally worth it.  I'm  
trying to get a copy of DataTank at work, since it has some  
advantages over Igor and Tecplot, which are my usual tools.  Wiring  
up a workflow of Unix pipes between sh, GMT, sed, awk and gnuplot  
takes more of my time than it's worth, and it's no longer satisfying  
to try and remember or look up arcane commands.

> More generally, is there a good list for these kinds of Mac- 
> oriented [if not exclusively Mac] scientific-computing questions?

Apple's scitech list is probably appropriate, and pretty low traffic  
(compared with cocoa-dev).  This topic comes up every few months, so  
you might find something interesting in the archives.

-- Adam
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