| 1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132 |
- This directory contains supplementary documentation on GNU pic2plot.
- `pic2plot' is a translator from the pic language to numerous graphics
- formats such as X11, PS/EPS, PCL 5, PNM, GIF, Tektronix, and to editable
- formats such as idraw, xfig, Illustrator, and CGM.
- The pic language makes it easy to create and modify box-and-arrow diagrams
- of the kind frequently found in technical papers and textbooks. It was
- originally designed to be translated to the troff text-processing language,
- so that diagrams could be interspersed with text. The utility program
- `pic', the GNU version of which is `gpic', can perform this translation.
- It is usually invoked on the command line by doing `groff -p', where
- `groff' is the GNU version of the troff text-processing utility. `gpic'
- can also translate pic diagrams to TeX macros, for inclusion in a TeX
- document.
- `pic2plot' provides a third alternative. By using `pic2plot', you may
- translate diagrams, written in the pic language, directly to graphics
- formats.
- In this directory, the file pic0.ps is Brian Kernighan's original Bell Labs
- technical report on the pic language. The file pic1.ps is Eric Raymond's
- report "Making Pictures with GNU pic", which contains additional details.
- Neither of these mentions `pic2plot', however.
- The documentation file picmacros.ps was kindly contributed by the late
- W. Richard Stevens, who died on Sept. 1, 1999. Rich Stevens wrote many
- fine books on programming and network programming, including `TCP/IP
- Illustrated' (Addison-Wesley, 1994). picmacros.ps shows how pic macros may
- be used to draw diagrams (the diagrams are taken from his books). The
- macros themselves are given in the file macros.pic. Rich asked me to
- describe them as "work in progress".
|
