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<!doctype linuxdoc system>
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<!-- This is the FAQ for Grace, the 2d plotting tool -->
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<title>Grace FAQ (for Grace-5.1.7)
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<author>by the Grace Team
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This document contains Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about
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<bf>Grace</bf>, a WYSIWYG 2D plotting tool for scientific data.
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<!-- **************************************** -->
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<sect>General Questions
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Grace is a tool to make two-dimensional plots of numerical
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data. It runs under various (if not all) flavours of UNIX
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with X11 and M*tif. Its capabilities are roughly similar to
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GUI-based programs like Sigmaplot or Microcal Origin plus
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script-based tools like gnuplot or Genplot. Its strength
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lies in the fact that it combines the convenience of a
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graphical user interface with the power of a scripting
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language which enables it to do sophisticated calculations
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or perform automated tasks.
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Grace is derived from Xmgr (a.k.a. ACE/gr), originally
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written by Paul Turner.
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From version number 4.00, the development was taken over by
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a team of volunteers under the coordination of Evgeny Stambulchik.
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See question <ref id="mailinglist" name="Mailing Lists"> on
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how to contact the developers.
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When its copyright was changed to GPL, the name was changed to Grace,
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which stands for ``GRaphing, Advanced Computation and Exploration of
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data'' or ``Grace Revamps ACE/gr''. The first version of Grace
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available is named 5.0.0, while the last public version of Xmgr has
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the version number 4.1.2.
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Paul still maintains and develops a non-public version of
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Xmgr for internal use.
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<sect1>Where can I get Grace?
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You can get the newest information about Grace and download
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the latest version at the <url
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url="http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/" name="Grace
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You can fetch it from a mirror site as well. The list of
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mirror sites can be found at <url
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url="ftp://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/pub/grace/MIRRORS">.
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<sect1>Where can I get the most recent information about Grace?
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Please refer to the <url name="official Grace Home Page"
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url="http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/">. There you
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can also find the latest version of this FAQ, links to the
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latest release and to mirror sites closer to you.
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<sect1>What is the difference between Xmgr and Grace?
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Apart from the licensing, the main difference is that Grace is
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WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). This was achieved through a
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major rewrite of all the mid-level drawing routines and the use of
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the device-independent Type 1 font rendering library T1lib for
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For help with changing from Xmgr to Grace see section
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<tt>Xmgr to Grace migration guide</tt> in the
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User's Guide (question <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">.
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There are currently several features of Xmgr which are not yet
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implemented in Grace (of course, alongside with a lot of new stuff
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not found in Xmgr). A full compatibility is desirable except for
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``bad'' features of Xmgr.
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Among the Xmgr features not (yet) implemented in Grace are:
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<item>Horizontal and vertical lines as symbols
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<sect1>Why did you change the name?
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When the licensing was changed to GPL, Paul wanted to keep
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the name for his non-public version of Xmgr, so we chose a
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<sect1>Is Grace free?
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Yes. Grace is free in terms of the GNU General Public
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License (GPL) (see the file <tt>LICENSE</tt> which comes with
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Grace or the <url url="http://www.gnu.org" name="GNU Home
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<sect1>Who wrote Grace?
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The sources of Grace still contain a significant amount of code from
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Xmgr by Paul Turner. For a list of those who contributed to Grace
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since then, see the file <tt>CHANGES</tt> in the Grace distribution.
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Some integral parts of Grace are borrowed from other
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packages, namely libraries which are also available
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as stand-alone distributions.
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In alphabetical order:
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<item> <url url="http://www.moshier.net/" name="Cephes math library">
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<item> <url url="http://www.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ini/PEOPLE/rmz/t1lib.html" name="T1lib">
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<item> <url url="http://www.lesstif.org/Xbae.html" name="Xbae">
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<sect1>Is there a Postscript|LaTeX|HTML|SGML
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version of this document?
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Yes. It is written in SGML which means that all the above
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versions can easily be created using <tt>sgml-tools</tt> (see
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their <url name="home page" url="http://www.sgmltools.org/">).
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At the Grace home page
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(see question <ref id="homepage" name="Home Page">), all
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these versions are available.
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<sect1>Who maintains the FAQ?
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Until recently, the FAQ had been maintained by <url name="Heiko
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Selber" url="mailto:selber@fhi-berlin.mpg.de">. There is no
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"official" maintainer right now. If you'd like to take the job,
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<!-- **************************************** -->
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<sect1>Are there any books about Grace?
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As of now, Grace is a purely virtual creature living in the net,
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i.e. there is no printed literature. All relevant docs are currently
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bundled with Grace. See questions <ref id="homepage" name="Home
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Page"> and <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide"> for details. You can
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print your own copy of the FAQ, the User's Guide and the Tutorial by
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converting the DVI files to PostScript output.
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<sect1>Is there a User's Guide available for Grace? <label id="manual">
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Yes. It is part of the Grace distribution and usually is
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located in <tt>$GRACE_HOME/doc/</tt>. There are several
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versions: the SGML source and HTML, LaTeX, DVI and PS
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derived from it. You can read the HTML version from a
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running Grace session by clicking on <tt>"Help/User
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Guide"</tt>. You need a web browser to read the HTML version
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(see also question <ref id="environment" name="Environment
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Variables">). You can always download the newest version
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from the Grace homepage (see question <ref id="homepage"
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The User's Guide is not quite complete, yet.
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<sect1>Is there a Tutorial available for Grace? <label id="tutorial">
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Yes. There are several tutorials which give detailed
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step-by-step information how to achieve various tasks. They
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are also part of the Grace distribution. You can find them
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in <tt>$GRACE_HOME/doc/</tt>.
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There are tutorials about creating a simple plot, batch
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plotting, fitting curves, transformations (graphical -
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simple ones, interpolation, feature extraction, using the
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command line), using pipes, overlaying graphs, hot links.
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<sect1>Where do I get support for Grace? <label id="support">
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You have the following options:
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<item>There is a User's Guide (see question <ref id="manual"
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name="User's Guide">) which came with Grace on your
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computer. It is usually located in
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<tt>$GRACE_HOME/doc/</tt> along with other files which
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may contain useful help for your problem. If you
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downloaded the sources, there are even more files in
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the main directory of the source tree.
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<item>Have a look at the Grace home page (question <ref
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id="homepage" name="Home Page">).
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<item>On the Grace mailing list (see question
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<ref id="mailinglist" name="Mailing Lists"> for details)
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you can easily get in contact with users and
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developers of Grace. However be aware that people
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here are trying to help in their spare time -
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so you can't always expect quick responses.
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<sect1>Is there a newsgroup devoted to Grace?
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No, there isn't. We feel that a mailing list (see question
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<ref id="mailinglist" name="Mailing Lists">) is more
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appropriate to discuss the topics related to Grace as long
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the volume of the lists stays low enough.
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<sect1>Is there a mailing list for Grace?<label id="mailinglist">
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Yes. Grace has three mailing lists: <tt>grace</tt>,
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<tt>grace-announce</tt> and <tt>grace-dev</tt>.
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See question <ref id="subscription" name="Subscription"> for
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details on how to subscribe.
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<tag>grace</tag> The first one, unmoderated, serves for general
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discussions about Grace. This is the list your message
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should go to if you have a question about
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Grace. Currently, the volume of this list is about a
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dozen messages per week.
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If you want to write an email to the list, use the
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address <htmlurl name="grace@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il"
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url="mailto:grace@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il">. This
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address is <bf>not</bf> for subscription or unsubscription.
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Virtually all developers and most users of Grace have
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subscribed to this list. So you can be pretty sure that
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there will be at least one who can help you.
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<bf>But:</bf> no one likes to read the same questions over
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and over again. So, please refer to other sources of
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help (see question <ref id="support" name="Support">)
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before asking something that can be found in the
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Instead of subscribing to the list itself you may wish
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to subscribe to the digest of the list. The digest is
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sent once in three days or when its size exceeds 32K.
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<tag>grace-announce</tag> The moderated grace-announce list is
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for new version or serious bug fix announcements only
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(which are automatically relayed to the first mailing
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list, too). The volume of this list is very low, like
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once a month or less.
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<tag>grace-dev</tag> The grace-dev mailing list is for
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developers. It serves for discussions about the future
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development or details which are usually not interesting
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There are <url name="mailing list archives"
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url="http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/maillists/grace/">
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available for browsing.
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<sect1>How do I subscribe to the mailing lists?<label id="subscription">
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You can subscribe to any of the Grace mailing lists by
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<tt><LISTNAME>-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il</tt> with
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no subject line and the only word <tt>`Subscribe'</tt> (without
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quotes, of course) in the body of the message.
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<tt><LISTNAME></tt> stands for the name of the list you wish
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to subscribe to, i.e. <tt>grace</tt>, <tt>grace-digest</tt>,
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<tt>grace-announce</tt> or <tt>grace-devel</tt>
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So the respective addresses are:
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<htmlurl name="grace-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il"
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url="mailto:grace-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il">
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<htmlurl name="grace-digest-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il"
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url="mailto:grace-digest-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il">
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<htmlurl name="grace-announce-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il"
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url="mailto:grace-announce-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il">
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<htmlurl name="grace-dev-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il"
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url="mailto:grace-dev-request@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il">
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To unsubscribe from a list, same instructions apply, with
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<tt>`Subscribe'</tt> being replaced by <tt>`Unsubscribe'</tt>.
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<!-- **************************************** -->
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<sect>Providing Help: Finding and Reporting Bugs
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<sect1>I think I found a bug in Grace! How do I report it?
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<label id="bugreport">
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<tag>First</tag> Make sure that what you found really is a bug.
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<tag>Second</tag> Try to make sure that it is a bug in Grace,
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and that the failure is not caused by another piece of
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<tag>Third</tag> Make sure you are running the latest official
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release of Grace. The development of Grace is
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rather fast, so your bug might already be fixed.
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<tag>Fourth</tag> Try to find out if the bug is already known
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(see question <ref id="w3todo" name="Known Bugs">).
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<tag>Fifth</tag> OK: You <em>have</em> found a new bug. Use
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<bf>w3todo</bf> (question <ref id="w3todo" name="Known
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Bugs">) to report it. Follow the instructions on the
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page and try to be as precise as possible. It won't be of
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much help if you write ``The program crashes.'' Try to
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find a simple reproducible case. Mention the version of
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Grace and where you got the build and the operating system
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you use. You should submit the system info as provided by
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``uname -a'' (if this utility exists, of course) and the output
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of ``xmgrace -version''. Often the problem is related to
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some specific data set. Please try hard on reducing this
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to the minimum which is sufficient of reproducing the
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bug. If it's only a few lines of data please submit
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it together with the other details.
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Once you submit the bug report, it will be automatically
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relayed to the mailing list. You will usually be notified when
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the bug is fixed or if we need more information, so please
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don't forget to give your correct e-mail address.
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<sect1>Is there a list of known bugs? <label id="w3todo">
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Yes. You can search and browse the database of known bugs in
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Grace at the bug report facility <url name="w3todo"
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url="http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/w3todo/index.phtml">
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or using the <tt>"Help/Comments"</tt> menu from within
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Grace. The database also keeps track of the status of the
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bug (<tt>Confirmed, Working on, Testing, Fixed, Closed,</tt>
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etc.). This is also the place to submit bug reports and
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Some bugs and fixes may not appear in w3todo, but are
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covered on the <ref id="mailinglist" name="mailinglists">.
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<sect1>The bug report #xxx is marked as "Fixed" in the w3todo, but I
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checked the last version of Grace and the bug is still there!
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The term "fixed" means the bug is fixed in the current
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<it>development</it> version, and the next <it>public</it> version
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will have the fix in it. Reports with fixes incorporated in an
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existing public version are marked as "Closed".
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<sect1>The bug report #xxx I reported is marked as "Ignored" in
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the w3todo and I even got no reply?!
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You must have missed something very obvious. Check out how to
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properly submit a bug report in this document. Most probably your
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report was incomplete or just redundant to an existing entry. It's
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worth checking the log file of the bug report (the "View log" button
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at the bottom of the report viewing page).
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<sect1>I have got an idea! How do I report a wish?
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You can submit wishes and suggestions just the way you would
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submit bug reports (see question <ref id="w3todo"
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name="Known Bugs">). Suggestions for improvement are
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generally very welcome. It may be possible, however, that
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the developers are busy or that your wish is rejected for
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some good reason, so it may be necessary to persuade (better
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convince) them to get at it.
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<sect1>I want to help! How can I contribute to Grace?
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Fine! There are always things to do.
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If you are a C programmer, you can almost certainly find
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something useful to do. Just ask the mailing list.
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The same applies if you are a technical writer. The documentation
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will certainly need to be updated, corrected or completed.
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Every small contribution is appreciated!
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Make Grace known to your friends and colleagues. The more
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users Grace has, the faster it will be improved.
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<sect1>How do I submit patches/contributions?
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Prepare diffs against the most recent version. Use
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either unified (-u) or context (-c) diff format.
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Specify exactly against which version the diff is
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<url url="mailto:fnevgeny@plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il">
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In case you plan to help this way more than once
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<ref id="mailinglist" name="developer mailinglist">
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<sect1>I like Grace! Should I donate anything to its authors?
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No need to. But if you feel like making a donation,
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choose any charity organization you like. You wanted to give
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them some money, anyway, right? ;-)
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<!-- **************************************** -->
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<sect1>How do I install Grace? <label id="install">
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You have the choice: either you compile the sources yourself
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or you download precompiled binaries. You can get both from
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the <url url="http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/"
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name="Grace Home Page">. Whether binaries for your platforms
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are available (see question <ref id="binaries" name="Binaries">)
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depends on whether one of the developers
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has access to the respective platform and has had time to do
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It is always a good idea to read the <tt>README</tt>s that accompany
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the downloading packages of Grace.
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<sect1>Can I compile Grace myself?
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Yes! Actually, this is the preferred method of installation.
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After getting the sources (question <ref id="install"
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name="Installation">) and un<tt>gzip</tt>ping and un<tt>tar</tt>ing
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them (use e.g. <tt>gzip -dc grace-5.0.4.tar.gz | tar xvf -</tt>),
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proceed according to the relevant section of the
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<ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">, which covers the compilation
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<sect1>When I run `configure', it says the XXX package is not found,
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whereas I am certain it was installed on my system!
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There are several possible reasons:
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You have only the run-time part installed (this especially
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concerns GNU/Linux users). However, you should have the
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relevant development package (C header files etc) installed, too.
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E.g., for the JPEG library to be recognized by `configure',
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<it>both</it> <tt>libjpeg62</tt> and <tt>libjpeg62-devel</tt>
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packages must be installed.
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The library and the header files don't match each other (they are
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from different versions). This usually happens on large Unix
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systems with a less than capable sysadmin...
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Either the library or the header files can't be found by the
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compiler. Use the <tt>--with-extra-ldpath</tt> and
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<tt>--with-extra-incpath</tt> configure options to provide the
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extra paths, respectively.
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<sect1>When I type './configure' I get: ``configure: warning:
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M*tif has not been found; building a GUI-less version''
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Check whether M*tif (question <ref id="motif"
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name="M*tif">) is installed on your system. If it is, look
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at the file config.log: there is a line like this:
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<tt>configure:8900: checking for a Motif >= 1002 compatible API</tt>
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What comes directly after it? Could be a hint. Also, see the previous
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<sect1>What is Motif (LessTif)? <label id="motif">
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Throughout the Grace docs, saying "M*tif" we actually refer to
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the M*tif <it>API</it>, defining a set of functions for building
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graphical user interfaces (GUI) via numerous widgets
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(buttons, labels, etc). Grace makes a heavy use of the M*tif API.
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There are several <it>implementations</it> of the interface. The
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original OSF Motif (see <url url="http://www.opengroup.org">)
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recently changed its license: on open-source platforms you
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may have a chance to use it for free, although it's not in general
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qualified as either a FreeSource or OpenSource product.
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There is, however, a free replacement for Motif called LessTif (see
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<url url="http://www.lesstif.org">). LessTif is intended to be a 100%
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source compatible replacement for Motif, but is still under
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development. For the purposes of Grace, try using the latest version
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of LessTif (at least 0.92.6 and above). The LessTif people usually
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receive many bug reports from the Grace developers, so you might hope
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that a few remaining bugs in LessTif will be fixed rather quickly.
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<sect1>`configure' stops telling it can't find "ar".
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"ar" is the library archiver (the program used to create static
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libraries like libFoo.a). You should have it in your path. Under
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Solaris, for example, this can be found in /usr/ccs/bin.
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<sect1>Are there Grace binaries available? For which platforms?
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<label id="binaries">
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You will find binaries for several flavours of UNIX and probably
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<url url="ftp://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/pub/grace/bin/">.
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<sect1>Is there a Windows|OS/2|VMS port of Grace?
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Yes, Grace runs on VMS. Just compile it there.
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As for Win32 (Windows 95/98/NT) and OS/2, there are ports for these
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platforms, though they are not "native", i.e. in order to run them,
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one needs an X server for the respective platform.
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Both OS/2 and Win32 ports may lack some of the functionality (notably,
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support for "direct"/native printing; probably you will have to use
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the Postscript output for printing).
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A port to OS/2 made by <url name="Alexander Mai"
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url="mailto:st002279@hrzpub.tu-darmstadt.de"> can be found
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at <url url="http://www.tu-darmstadt.de/~st002279/os2/">.
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It requires the XFree86 libraries and an X Server (e.g. XFree86,
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Hob X11, Exceed, etc.).
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<!-- **************************************** -->
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<sect>Runtime Problems
579
<sect1>When I start Grace I get the message
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``Can't find library libXXX.so'' or similar.
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For certain tasks, Grace needs external libraries which are
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neither provided by Grace nor the operating system. You will
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need to install these libraries yourself. This applies to
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M*tif, PDF (see question <ref id="export" name="Output Devices">)
587
and probably other libraries.
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If the message is exactly <tt>Can't find library libXm.so</tt>
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(usually this happens on GNU/Linux systems ...) then you don't have
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M*tif (the Xm libraries) installed (see question
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<ref id="motif" name="M*tif">), or the linker doesn't
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In the first case, try downloading LessTif. In the second case,
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you have to tell your linker where it is (may be
595
a platform-specific task). On GNU/Linux look at the file
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<tt>/etc/ld.so.conf</tt>. It contains pathnames of the directories
597
where dynamic libraries are stored. Add (as root) your directory
598
to this file and run <tt>ldconfig -v</tt>. Now the libraries
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should be in the list. If you're not root you may try
600
to adjust the environment variable <tt>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</tt>
601
to include the required pathname.
603
For some versions of Motif, the ``soname'' (which
604
identifies the version of the library and is stored
605
somewhere in the library) on your computer doesn't match
606
the soname of the library on the computer where your copy
607
of Grace was compiled on. Then you should use a
608
(semi)statically linked version or compile Grace on your
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<sect1>I get errors like "X Error of failed request: BadValue
612
(integer parameter out of range for operation)"
615
This means that Grace made an incorrect access to an X
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library. This is most probably not Grace's fault. Probably a
617
not-yet-correctly-implemented LessTif function (see question
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<ref id="motif" name="M*tif">) caused this behaviour. If you
619
use LessTif, try to get the latest version (see question
620
<ref id="motif" name="M*tif">). If this error persists,
621
report it as a bug (question <ref id="bugreport" name="Bug
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<sect1>Grace crashes with "Oops Got SIGSEV" (on GNU/Linux)
626
Detect whether you are using a version linked against
627
LessTif. "xmgrace -version" and "ldd xmgrace" are
628
useful commands for this purpose.
630
If you are using LessTif, read the according FAQ
631
<ref id="motif" name="M*tif"> else report it as a bug
632
(<ref id="bugreport" name="Bug Reports">).
634
<sect1>I run Grace and get the following error messages:
636
translation table syntax error: Unknown keysym name: osfPageLeft
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Warning: ... found while parsing
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'<Key>osfPageLeft:SWLeftPage()'"
641
Get the XKeySymDB file from the X11R6 distribution. Put it
642
somewhere where you can access it and set the <tt>XKEYSYMDB</tt>
643
environment variable to
644
<tt>"/place/where/you/put/XKeysymDB"</tt>. See question
645
<ref id="environment" name="Environment Variables"> on how
646
to set environment variables.
648
<sect1>I run Grace on a Solaris 2.5.1 box, and when I try to open a file,
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I can't read the names of the files (files section of the dialog)
650
because Grace writes ALL the path of each file in the list and
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there is no horizontal scroll.
654
This is a known bug of Motif implementation on Solaris
655
2.5.1 (both Sparc and Intel hardware). Ask your vendor for a patch.
657
<sect1>Grace can not find font database and initialize the T1 library
659
You have probably tried to run Grace without installing it,
660
just after compilation. You got the following message :
663
scanFontDBase(): Font Database File not found
664
T1_InitLib(): Fatal error scanning Font Database File
665
--> Broken or incomplete installation - read the FAQ!
668
Grace uses either the <tt>GRACE_HOME</tt> environment variable
669
or a compiled in default path to find the font database. If
670
the variable is not set and you have not installed the
671
database with <tt>make install</tt> it cannot find it. If you
672
want to test Grace before installing it, you should set the
673
environment variable to the distribution directory (the one
674
where the file <tt>configure</tt> lies), this is what the
675
<tt>dotest</tt> script does when you run <tt>make check</tt>. The
676
easiest thing to do however is to install everything with
677
<tt>make install</tt>. See question <ref id="environment"
678
name="Environment Variables"> on how to set environment
681
If you get this message after installing a prebuilt package,
682
then you have either forgotten to download the platform-independent
683
part of the installation (named like grace-x.y.zz.common.tar.gz) or
684
not set the <tt>GRACE_HOME</tt> environment variable, see few lines
687
<sect1>Grace can not find help files.
690
Set the <tt>GRACE_HOME</tt> environment variable to your Grace
691
directory. The help files are in
692
<tt>$GRACE_HOME/doc</tt>. See question <ref
693
id="environment" name="Environment Variables"> on how to
694
set environment variables.
696
<sect1>Pressing Ctrl and clicking with the left mouse button on the
697
canvas or dialog panels make Grace crash.
700
This is a known bug in Motif-2.1. Most vendors have fixed it in their
701
ports and/or have a patch ready, but not all, a notable exception
702
being Motif libraries shipped by Red Hat for GNU/Linux for Intel
703
hardware. Grace has a workaround for this bug. In order to enable it,
704
add the following lines to the X resources:
707
XMgrace*XmDrawingArea.translations: #override\n\
708
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
709
XMgrace*XmRowColumn.translations: #override\n\
710
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
711
XMgrace*XmForm.translations: #override\n\
712
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
713
XMgrace*XmFrame.translations: #override\n\
714
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
715
XMgrace*XmScrolledWindow.translations: #override\n\
716
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
717
XMgrace*XmFileSelectionBox.translations: #override\n\
718
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
719
XMgrace*XmScale.translations: #override\n\
720
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
721
XMgrace*XmCommand.translations: #override\n\
722
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
723
XMgrace*XmMessageBox.translations: #override\n\
724
Ctrl <Btn1Down>: do_nothing()
728
<!-- **************************************** -->
733
<sect1>What is a project?
736
A project is a file which contains all information necessary
737
to restore a plot created by Grace.
739
<sect1>What is a parameter file? <label id="parameter">
742
A parameter file contains informations about settings. Every
743
batch command of Grace is a valid line in a parameter
744
file. A parameter file is essentially a project file without
745
sets in a slightly different format (i.e. without leading
748
<sect1>Which data formats does Grace recognize?
751
You can read in several kinds of files where data is
752
arranged in columns separated by spaces or tabs.
754
Files which are not in simple x y format must have a line
755
<tt>@TYPE xytype</tt> before the actual data, where xytype
756
stands for the set type. Refer to the User's Guide (question
757
<ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">) for details.
758
Alternatively, the file format can be set with a command
761
<sect1>What is block data?
764
The option <tt>Read Block Data</tt> can be used to read in files
765
where the values are organized in columns. You
766
can interactively select the type of set to be created and
767
which columns should be used. Refer to the User's Guide
768
(question <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">) for details.
770
<sect1>What is the NXY data type?
773
Strictly speaking, it's not a data format. Rather, you may want
774
to use the relevant command line switch to read in a block data
775
file and automatically assign the data columns to sets of the XY
776
type so that the first column of the block data is used as X
777
for all the sets and the rest of the data columns are assigned to Y's.
778
Refer to the User's Guide
779
(question <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">) for details.
781
<sect1>What is the Julian Date?<label id="jdate">
784
The Julian Date, not to be confused with the Julian
785
calendar, is a format to represent the time in a single
786
number. Julian Date 0 is a day way in the past, namely the
787
1st January 4713 before Christ (don't ask me why). The
788
following days are numbered sequentially, each day starting
790
This numbering scheme is in wide use, especially in
791
astronomy, and is used for the internal representation of
792
dates in Grace. Some further explanations are given on
793
<url url="http://www.magnet.ch/serendipity/hermetic/cal_stud/jdn.htm"
796
The <tt>convcal</tt> utility in <tt>$GRACE_HOME/auxiliary/</tt> can
797
be used for about any to Julian date convertion.
800
<!-- **************************************** -->
805
<sect1>How do I start Grace?
808
There are three ways to invoke Grace. The full-featured
809
GUI-based version is called <tt>xmgrace</tt>. A batch-printing
810
version is called <tt>gracebat</tt> (see question <ref
811
id="gracebat" name="Gracebat">). A command-line interface mode
812
is called <tt>grace</tt>.
814
All three of them are usually located in <tt>$GRACE_HOME/bin/</tt>.
816
<sect1>Where is gracebat? How does batch printing work?
817
<label id="gracebat">
820
<tt>gracebat</tt> is simply a copy of Grace named <tt>gracebat</tt>
821
or a symbolic link from <tt>gracebat</tt> to Grace. In the case
822
of the symbolic link:
824
<tt>ln -s xmgrace gracebat</tt>
826
done wherever the Grace binary is located will do the trick
827
(rehash or logout and login to make sure that <tt>gracebat</tt>
828
shows up in your path). Executing <tt>gracebat</tt> with no
829
command line parameters or data files will produce a
830
hardcopy on the default printer.
832
<sect1>How can I customize the default appearance of Grace?
836
There are several ways: the init files, X Resources, and
837
environment (shell) variables. Please refer to the
838
User's Guide (question <ref id="manual" name="User Guide">)
841
<sect1>Which environment variables does Grace use?
842
<label id="environment">
845
There are few, the most important being <tt>GRACE_HOME</tt>.
846
It specifies the directory where the Grace files (fonts,
847
docs, libs, ...) are stored. Default is <tt>/usr/local/grace</tt>.
849
You can set environment variables using (e.g.):
851
<tt>export GRACE_HOME="/usr/local/grace"</tt>
855
<tt>setenv GRACE_HOME "/usr/local/grace"</tt>
859
Please refer to the User's Guide
860
(question <ref id="manual" name="User Guide">)
861
for description of all relevant variables.
863
<sect1>What command line options does Grace recognize?
866
Quite a few. You can display them with <tt>xmgrace -help</tt>.
868
Or check for the man page xmgrace(1). However it may
869
not always be up-to-date.
871
<sect1>Can one change the colour selecton for the menu,
872
locator, tool, and status bars, and all the popup menus?
875
As with any X application, use the "-bg <colorname> -fg
876
<another_colorname>" command line flags. Or, define the
877
relevant X resources:
880
XMgrace*foreground: ...
881
XMgrace*background: ...
884
<sect1>What different kinds of sets can Grace plot?
887
The standard set is the regular (x,y) set, but there are
888
others including error bars or descriptive strings. See the
889
User's Guide (question <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">)
892
<sect1>I'd like to plot data against an axis on the right (top) and
893
another data set in a different scale against an axis on the
897
Use two overlaying graphs, one with a scale on the
898
left(bottom), the other one on the right (top). Thus you
899
can achieve the desired effect, but you'll need to pay
900
close attention to which graph is the 'current'
901
graph. This is also how to display a second scale on the
902
top (right) side of the graph.
904
<sect1>How do I do polar plots?
907
The support for polar plots is currently being
908
implemented, so you can expect polar plots to work
909
soon. The polar coordinates can be selected from the
910
<tt>"Plot/Graph Appearance"</tt> menu. Please refer to
911
the User's Guide (question <ref id="manual" name="User Guide">)
914
<sect1>Can I use different fonts, symbols, font size, or
915
sub/superscripts in Grace?
918
Yes, Grace has all these features. Wherever you can type a
919
text in Grace, e.g. Axis labels, graph title, text from
920
<tt/Plot->Drawing objects/, etc., you can use all those
921
features within the same text. Please refer to the User
922
Guide (question <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">) for
925
<sect1>How do I produce special characters (Umlauts) with Grace?
928
If you asked this question, then you are probably familiar with
929
the issue of keymap modifying in X. Once you configured the key
930
mapping (with the use of <tt>xmodmap</tt>), you can enter the
931
extended characters from the keyboard in any text input field. If,
932
in addition, the appropriate for your language font encoding is
933
anything but ISO Latin1 (used in most Western Europe countries),
934
you'll have to tell Grace so. See the
935
<ref id="fonts" name="next question">.
937
<sect1>Can I use my own fonts and/or encodings? <label id="fonts">
940
Yes. Starting with version 5.0.1, you can use your own
941
fonts, in addition to the standard 14 fonts which
942
include Times-Roman, Helvetica, Courier, Symbols and Zapf
943
Dingbats and come with Grace, and as a replacement for the
944
default fonts (for the purporse of localization). As well,
945
an alternative encoding scheme can be specified.
947
Please refer to the User's Guide
948
(question <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">) for details.
951
<sect1>At which precision is numerical data saved? How can I set the
955
By default, numbers are saved with eight valid digits. To
956
set your own precision, use the command
958
<tt>DEFAULT SFORMAT formatstring</tt>
960
in an init resource file (see question <ref id="custom"
961
name="Customization">) with formatstring being in the
962
<tt>printf(3)</tt> format.
964
<sect1>How do I read in project files created by Xmgr or older versions
968
From Xmgr-4.1.2 on, each project file starts with a string
969
giving the version number by which is was saved. These
970
files should cause no problems. You can modify older files
971
by inserting a version line at the beginning. For example,
972
<tt>@VERSION 40102</tt> stands for version 4.1.2. If you have no
973
idea what version of Xmgr your file was created with, try some.
974
In most cases, 40102 would do the trick. Also, make sure to read
975
the "Xmgr to Grace migration" section of the User's Guide
976
(question <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">).
978
<sect1>I can't open anymore project files saved with an old version of
982
In Xmgr-4.1.0, support for the binary file format (the
983
former default one) was dropped. You must use the
984
<tt>grconvert</tt> utility supplied with the Grace
985
distribution in order to convert the files. This can
986
easily be achieved defining an input filter like in the
987
<tt>gracerc</tt> sample file which comes with Grace.
989
<sect1>When I load a project saved with an earlier version of Xmgr
990
(<4.0), symbols of all (some) sets are drawn in black.
993
Make sure you added a valid <tt>@VERSION versionid</tt> line to the
994
beginning of the file.
996
<sect1>How do I save disk space? Can I use compressed project files?
999
Yes. You can use your favorite compression program
1000
(e.g. `gzip') as input or output filter so that files on
1001
disk are automagically (de)compressed. Just add the lines
1003
<tt>DEFINE IFILTER "gzip -dc %s" PATTERN "*.gz"</tt>
1007
<tt>DEFINE OFILTER "gzip - > %s" PATTERN "*.gz"</tt>
1009
into your personal grace init file. Then, everytime you
1010
specify a file name that ends with <tt>.gz</tt>, gzip is used
1011
as input and output filters. You can use this mechanism to
1012
do other things, e.g. reading and storing files into a
1015
<sect1>Can I import bitmap graphics into Grace?
1018
Well, not yet. The import of images will be implemented
1019
in a future release.
1021
<sect1>Can I export Grace graphs to GIF|TIFF|
1022
PostScript|PDF etc? <label id="export">
1025
PostScript (for printing), EPS (encapsulated
1026
PostScript; for the inclusion of graphics into e.g. LaTeX
1027
documents), PNM (PBM/PGM/PPM), MIF (for inclusion in
1028
FrameMaker) and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
1029
are implemented by default.
1031
Additionally, if some extra libraries are installed, listed in the
1032
User's Guide (question <ref id="manual" name="User's Guide">),
1033
the JPEG, PNG, and PDF backends will be built as well.
1035
You can get various other formats using netpbm and pstoedit.
1037
Bitmaps: Using the PNM device + the <tt>netpbm</tt> utils
1038
(available at e.g. <url
1039
url="ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities/"> one can get
1040
TIFF, GIF, G3, BMP, PCX,... (conversion can be done on
1041
the fly with appropriate filter definitions).
1043
Notice that the direct support of the GIF format is impossible
1044
due to the copyright policy of Unisys - it's not a technical
1045
problem. In fact it was supported in earlier versions but
1046
to avoid any legal problems this feature has been removed.
1048
One can use <url name="pstoedit"
1049
url="http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/1958/pstoedit/">
1050
to convert PS to a lot of other vector formats: MIF, CGM,
1051
xfig's, tgif's, Windoze and OS/2 metafiles,... even Java
1054
<sect1>Where have all the region operations gone to?
1057
Region operations have no meaning by themselves. Regions are
1058
restriction conditions applied to data set(s) which a
1059
transformation is performed on. For example, to kill data points in
1060
a region, use "Evaluate expression", select same source and dest
1061
set(s), leave the "formula" field empty, select your region in the
1062
"Restriction" menu, check "Negated".
1064
<sect1>How can I input data in date/time formats?
1067
You can use several date/time formats in input data files.
1068
Make sure, however, that the time fields don't contain space
1069
separators inside, e.g. 1999-12-31-23:59:59.5
1071
Also, you can use an external program to convert the data into the
1072
<ref id="jdate" name="Julian Date"> format, like the one (convcal)
1073
that is supplied with Grace.
1075
<sect1>How do I set the background color of a plot, outside of the graph
1079
This can be done using the <tt>"Plot/Plot appearance"</tt> popup.
1081
This changes the background of the entire canvas, not only
1082
the background of graphs.
1084
<sect1>How do I use more than 16 colors for objects/lines in Grace?
1087
You may edit your Default.agr file in
1088
<tt>$GRACE_HOME/templates</tt>. Just add lines similar to
1089
<verb> @map color 2 to (255, 0, 0), "red" </verb> defining a RGB
1090
value and an according name for that color triplet.
1092
<sect1>How can I use pipes with Grace?
1095
A named pipe is a pseudo file to which one application
1096
writes data which another one reads from it.
1098
Applications like measurement programs can write data to a
1099
pipe and make it thus available to Grace which reads from
1100
the pipe. So Grace can serve as data displayer for otherwise
1101
non-graphical programs.
1103
Refer to the User's Guide (question <ref id="manual"
1104
name="User's Guide">) or the tutorials (question <ref
1105
id="tutorial" name="Tutorials">) for further information.
1107
One example for using pipes is included in the <tt>`make
1108
tests'</tt> slide show.
1110
<sect1>Is it possible to make Grace starting with a completely empty
1111
canvas, until the commands are loaded and executed?
1113
Start Grace with -pexec "G0 OFF" or load a parameter file with
1117
<sect1>When I include an EPS file generated by Grace into my (La)TeX
1118
document, the graphic hides some of the surrounding text.
1121
LaTeX does not do hard clipping of EPS files unless instructed to do
1122
so. Use \includegraphics*{filename} and NOT
1123
\includegraphics{filename} (package <tt>graphics</tt>) or
1124
\includegraphics[clip]{filename} (package <tt>graphicx</tt>). If
1125
using the <tt>epsf</tt> package, remember to include the \epsfclipon
1126
flag (but note that the <tt>epsf</tt> package is obsolet and buggy
1127
and not maintained by the LaTeX team and in general should not be
1130
The erasing comes about because Grace fills the background with the
1131
page size and not the bbox size. The background filling can be
1132
disabled from the "Plot/Plot appearance" popup.
1134
<sect1>Printing to my old PostScript printer produces an error.
1137
By default, the PS driver uses Level 2 features, while your
1138
printer may not be PostScript Level 2 compliant. You can force
1139
the use of PS Level 1 only features in the PostScript device setup,
1140
though output may be not exactly as expected (there will be no
1141
pattern fills, for example).
1143
<sect1>How do I make a Grace image fit on a given paper size?
1146
Select the correct paper size in the <tt>Device setup</tt>
1149
You can also try the command psresize from the
1150
<url name="psutils package"
1151
url="http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~ajcd/psutils/"> in order to
1152
resize a Postscript file generated by Grace.
1154
<sect1>My decimal tick labels are systematically of the form e.g.
1155
0,5 instead of 0.5 (i.e. I get a comma instead of a dot).
1158
You're using a localized version of OS. You have either LANG or
1159
LC_NUMERIC shell variables set, so Grace uses the locale setting to
1160
produce numeric labels. Set at least LC_NUMERIC to C or POSIX to
1161
disable this behaviour. Notice that there is nothing specific to
1162
Grace about locale. Either you want the localization or not. Setting
1163
by default LANG to anything but C/POSIX assumes you do.
1165
<sect1>Is it possible to use the dB (decibel) axis scale?
1168
In "Plot/Axis props", enable logarithmic axis scaling, then go to
1169
the "Tick labels" tab of this dialog, find the "Axis transform"
1170
input field in the "Extra" frame, and enter there "10*log10(10*$t)"
1171
(w/o quotes, of course).
1173
<sect1>In "Data set properties", I don't see a possibility to view the
1174
more essential part of the mantissa; it's swallowed in the black
1178
If you find some columns are too narrow to show all significant
1179
digits, you can drag the vertical rules using Shift+Button 2.
1181
<sect1>When making use of <it>-param</it> via the command line to set
1182
the parameters, the world scaling is not correctly set (it just
1186
The <it>-param</it> flag and its argument should be placed on the
1187
command line <bf>after</bf> the data filenames. Alternatively,
1188
disable the autoscale with <it>-autoscale none</it> - but
1189
<bf>before</bf> your data is read in.
1192
<!-- **************************************** -->
1197
<sect1>What algorithm is used for non-linear curve fitting?
1200
It is the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, based on LMDIF from
1201
MINPACK, with some modifications.
1203
<!-- **************************************** -->
1205
<sect>Command Line Interface <label id="commands">
1208
<sect1>Which non-interactive batch commands does Grace know?
1211
Lots. Almost every mouseclick in the GUI has an equivalent
1212
in the batch language. See the User's Guide (question <ref
1213
id="manual" name="User's Guide">) for details.
1216
<sect1>How can I do feature extraction non-interactively?
1219
Currently not at all. This will be implemented in a later
1222
<sect1>How can I use non-linear fits in the batch mode?
1225
Example - make a batch file with the following commands:
1228
fit formula "y = a0 + a1 * sin (a2 + x * pi / 180)"
1229
fit with 3 parameters
1242
This assumes that your original curve is in set s0 and that
1243
you want to make 100 iterations.
1245
<tt>nonlfit()</tt> doesn't produce any plots by itself. It only
1246
<bf>fits</bf>. I.e., at this point, you can use the fitted
1247
values <tt>A0, A1, A2...</tt>:
1255
s3.y = a0 + a1 * sin (a2 + x * pi / 180)
1258
Use for another fit as the initial values, or just ECHO them
1259
(to <tt>stdout</tt>) with <tt>ECHO A0</tt>.
1261
<sect1>Is it possible to call the command "POINT expr, expr" with more
1262
than two values, as needed, for example, for points in XYDYDY
1265
No, but you can do something like this (given the set type was
1270
S0.Y1[S0.LENGTH - 1] = expr
1271
S0.Y2[S0.LENGTH - 1] = expr
1275
<!-- **************************************** -->
1280
<sect1>Does Grace have an UNDO function?
1283
Not yet. Although it would be nice to have such a
1284
function, it is quite hard to implement. We can only ask you
1285
to be careful with certain actions and remember to <tt>save
1286
often and early (TM)</tt>.
1288
<sect1>Can Grace plot 3D graphs?
1291
No. Not yet, I should say. Be patient. It may take quite a
1292
while to implement it, though.
1294
<sect1>Which features are planned for the future?
1297
Among the many features planned to be introduced in the
1298
future are enhancing the spreadsheet-like frontend for dataset
1299
operations, contour plots, many-level undo/redo, image import and
1300
manipulations, a library for 2-way communication, ... Then 3D plots
1303
<sect1>Are there things that Grace can't do?
1306
Probably. If you have an idea for improvement, send mail to
1307
the mailing list (question <ref id="mailinglist"
1308
name="Mailing Lists">) or post it as a wish to the w3todo web
1309
page (see question <ref id="w3todo" name="Known Bugs">).
1313
<!-- End of FAQ.sgml -->
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