Re: @Graph

[Jeff Kingston]

On Fri Jan 18 2002 Mark Summerfield wrote:

    >  Jeff,
    >  
    >  I've just started using the @Graph package. It is pretty good (of
    >  course:), but I've noticed a couple of things.
    >  
    >  1) pg. 216 of the 3.25 user guide says
    >  
    >      @Graph
    >   width { 6.0 cm }
    >   height { 4.0 cm }
    >  
    >  when it should surely be
    >  
    >      @Graph
    >   width { 6.0c }
    >   height { 4.0c }

Agreed and fixed.

    >  
    >  2) You don't show the source for the temperature and precipitation
    >  graph, even though it introduces new things.

Added it for next release.

    >  
    >  3) You don't give an example of a bar graph that has bars in different
    >  colours, e.g.
    >  
    >      | BLUE
    >      | BLUE  RED
    >      | BLUE  RED
    >      +----------
    >  
    >  even though this is perfectly (if strangely) doable.

I mention how to do it now.

    >  
    >  4) On pg. 229 you say that you can't use @GraphCross etc. in the right
    >  parmaeter of @Graph. I think you should mention that you *can* use them
    >  within objects to place your key on the graph itself.

Done.

    >  5) It is almost impossible to use a @Graph in an @Illustration. This is
    >  because of margins. If you use @Wide and @High with @Illustration, say
    >  20c by 16c and have a @Graph with width and height at say 18c and 12c,
    >  the graphs y axis will always be at the far left (cutting off the ticks
    >  and left caption). This is a bit frustrating because it means you have
    >  to copy doc just to set the page size and have 2 files for every graph!
    >  hidecaptions { no } comes close, but doesn't leave any margin.

I'd be putting a @Box with no outline around the graph, or falling back
on Lout primitives like |0.5i etc.

    >  
    >  6) If you do a key (say as a @Tbl) using objects in a @Graph @OverStrike
    >  @Graph situation, and change the font of the @Tbl, for some reason the
    >  graphs won't overstrike correctly! I solved the immediate problem by
    >  @Scale-ing the key.

If you still have an example I'd be happy to look into it.

    >  
    >  7) The coverage of bar charts in the user guide is a bit "lite". There
    >  doesn't seem to be a way to "colour" using patterns, e.g. hatching,
    >  lines, etc. This matters when you're producing documents that must be
    >  printed in B&W.

Done (textures, see recent posting) for next release.

Jeff