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Re: Potential new project: Calculator (scientific, graphing, statistical)
On Thu, Feb 11, 1999 at 10:31:01AM -0500, Kevin Turner wrote:
> * Since function graphing is graphical, and there are already a wide
> collection of decent command-line calculator programs, we might as well
> put a GUI on it. One target is GNOME, because it looks like a promising
> trend. Whether or not a text-mode (SLang?) GUI in addition would
> provide sufficient advantage over existing command-line tools to be
> worth the effort is a subject open to debate.
One idea: if you use SLang for a text-mode interface, you can
also use SLang as the "math engine" of the calculator. SLang uses nice
infix notation, it handles matrices, arrays, complex numbers, ...
As a matter of fact, John Davis is currently developing a numerical
package in SLang (sldxe). It doesn't have any graphics, but you can
import an external module, so far there are modules for pgplot and
plplot interface. Other modules could be written, for example an
OpenGL interface. It can also call other applications and hand them
data, I have been using it with geomview to generate 3D plots. (I also
used sldxe to generate data files for povray, to raytrace some neat
parametrically given surfaces. You can see an example at
http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/%7Elahvak/math/surf.jpg :-)
> * The option to export to a format which gnuplot can interpret would be
> wise, because gnuplot is a nice piece of work and can output to every
> plotting device known to man and then some. However, I don't think
> that's the best choice for an interactive display interface. Something
> based on the GNOME canvas seems ideal; scaleable, pannable, and
> postscript output for printing, very desireable qualities for our
> graphs to have.
Good zooming capabilities would be desirable.
--
Jan Hlav\'{a}\v{c}ek
lahvak@math.ohio-state.edu (Blind Carbon Copies will bounce)
www: http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~lahvak/