Jgraph -- A Filter for Plotting Graphs in Postscript

James S. Plank, University of Tennessee.

Original Code: November, 1992.
Latest Revision (8.5): November, 2017.

If You Use Jgraph

Brief Description

Jgraph is a program that takes the description of a graph or graphs as input, and produces a postscript file on the standard output. Jgraph is ideal for plotting any mixture of scatter point graphs, line graphs, and/or bar graphs, and embedding the output into LaTeX, or any other text processing system that can read postscript.

The Software (version 8.6)

• I posted it in November, 1992, and it is written in a very old-school C fashion.
• It remained unchanged for 19 years and 11 months, until some C compilers would not accept it. So, I did a round of revisions to suppress warnings and make the compilers accept it. No functional changes or even bug fixes. Version 8.4 was posted in October, 2012.
• We have another compiler change -- this time not accepting the old-school C habit of not giving types to void procedures. So, we now have revision 8.5, in November of 2017, where all void procedures are actually voids.
• And another 5 years 4 months. Now unprototyped procedures no longer default to int. So here's revision 8.6, February, 2024, and I've purposely left out the arguments in the prototypes. I bet it is less than 5 more years before that becomes illegal.

I find it interesting (as of writing this in February, 2024) that a piece of C code that has been completely functional for 31+ years has had to be revised three times now, not because the code is incorrect, but because the compiler-writers change the definition of the language. I know I sound petulant, but there you have it. You can get the tar file at http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~jplank/plank/jgraph/2024-02-15-Jgraph.tar

A set of more complex jgraph examples is available in pub/plank/jgraph/complex_examples.shar.Z.

Jgraph is currently part of the Debian and the SAL (Scientific Applications on Linux) software repositories.

It has been reported to me (2021): "I just wanted to let you know that the compiler shipping with Apple’s new ARM machines required that I pass -Wno-implicit in order to compile Jgraph. It doesn’t seem like it’s respecting -ansi for some reason... sigh"

Other interesting files

Jgraph lecture notes -- easier to read than the man page, so I've been told.

The gif files were created with jgrtoppm (below).

• The Jgraph README file
• A typical scatter graph: Input, Output: postscript, gif
• A typical bar graph: Input, Output: postscript, gif
• A nice bar graph: Input, Output: postscript, gif
• An amazing bar graph (made by Dave Wortman): Input, Output
• A graph with custom axes (made by Matt Blaze): Input, (mab2.times), Output: postscript, gif
• A structured drawing (made by Adam Buchsbaum): Input, Output: postscript, gif
• The Jgraph USA-Today mock-graph: Input, Output: postscript, gif
• The Jgraph football field slide: Input, Output
• Jgraph Overhead Slide #1 (embedded ps map of US): Input, Output
• Jgraph Overhead Slide #2 (typical slide): Input, Output
• Jgraph Overhead Slide #3 (bar graphs): Input, Output
• Jgraph Overhead Slide #4 (structured drawing): Input, Output
• Jgraph Overhead Slide #5 (made by Dave Wortman): Input, Output
• Jgraph Overhead Slide #6 (structured drawing -- 105K): Input, Output

• ctojgr -- A handy shell script to convert ascii text files to jgraphs. E.g. Input, Output of ctojgr, Output of jgraph.
• Shell scripts that use ghostscript to convert jgraph files to pnm (ppm, pgm, pbm) files. You can then use xv or ppmtogif to convert the pnm files to gif files:
  • jgrtoppm (color),
  • jgrtopgm (grayscale),
  • jgrtopbm (black&white).

• The srm series (jgraph pictures of a "typical" computer -- varying colors). Make an eps file out of them and include them in drawings as an eps mark (see overhead #6 above for example use): Black, White (use on black), Yellow, Red, Blue
• Disks -- White on black, Black on white.
• Red Heart.
• Brief notes on an NT port, by C.M. Procter.

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