PGPLOT module for Perl ---------------------- Karl Glazebrook, Anglo-Australian Observatory kgb@aaoepp.aao.gov.au [see file CHANGES for new features] This module allows the use of the the PGPLOT graphics library from the popular Perl scripting language. PGPLOT makes it very easy to process and plot data using the powerful file and text manipulation facilites built in to Perl. Perl provides a superset of the features of the useful UNIX utilities awk and sed and is the `Swiss-Army Chainsaw' of UNIX programming. Because Perl is a scripting language a program can be changed and rerun to instantly see the effect on a plot. This makes program development a lot faster and much more fun than when using PGPLOT from fully compiled languages such as C or FORTRAN. Users of MONGO and SM will be familiar with this style of programming. Perl also allows you to create advanced World Wide Web page features and/or routinely do system management tasks (Perl handles regular expressions, files and sockets with equal ease). PGPLOT is a very popular library for plotting astronomical data. (As a glance through any issue of ApJ or MNRAS will confirm.) I have always found that with PGPLOT I could produced far nicer and more complex plots than I could with MONGO but it was always harder to use because it had to be done from C or FORTRAN. SM is a nice package, but the language is primitive in comparison with Perl and it is not free software. The PGPLOT module for Perl is free software and provides a complete Perl interface to all of the PGPLOT library functions. The current module version is 2.0, it requires Perl 5.003 (or greater) and builds against the 5.2.0 version of the PGPLOT C/FORTRAN library. More information may be obtained from the 'pgperl' Web home page: http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/kgb/pgperl The home ftp sites are: ftp.aao.gov.au:/pub/pgperl/ located in Australia. ftp.ast.cam.ac.uk:/pub/kgb/pgperl/ located in Cambridge, U.K. linux.nrao.edu:/pub/packages/pgperl/ located in the U.S. The core module is also available from The Comprehensive Perl Archive (CPAN) network in the directory CPAN/modules/by-module/PGPLOT. Installation ------------ 1) First you must compile and install the pgplot graphics libraries: The source can be obtained from the ftp site astro.caltech.edu in directory /pub/pgplot. Alternatively see the home ftp sites above. To build pgplot you need a FORTRAN compiler - the free compiler GNU-77 works just fine (versions 5.0-18 and above). There is a PGPLOT Home Page at: http://astro.caltech.edu/~tjp/pgplot/ 2) Download and unpack the module. Then follow the standard Perl build procedure: perl Makefile.PL make make test [When you run 'make test' you will be prompted for a graphics device. Try /XSERVE for a X11 display.] If something goes wrong read the file HELP, if everything works: make install