Older News

20-February-2017

DISLIN version 11.0 is released as a stable summarize of the 10.6.x upgrades with a few changes.

  • The i386 and i386_64 distributions of DISLIN for very old Linux systems are removed from the server. These Linux systems are no longer supported.
  • The pre-compiled Perl modules in the DISLIN distributions for Linux are updated to the Perl versions 5.18.2, 5.20.2 and 5.22.1 compiled on Ubuntu 14.04, 15.10 and 16.04.
  • A new DISLIN book for version 11 is in preparation and will be available in a few weeks (hopefully).

14-September-2016

Upgrade 10.6.2 is available with the following changes and bug fixes:

  • FITSHDU is a new routine that defines the FITS HDU for following FITS operations.
  • The keywords 'LSEA', 'ISEA' and 'HSEA' are added to SHDMAP for sea shading with GSHHS map coordinates.
  • A bug in the routine NEGLOG in the Fortran code of DISLIN is fixed. The routine NEGLOG had no effect before.
  • SHDEUR produced wrong colors in the Java distributions of DISLIN. The bug is corrected.
  • Possible horizontal lines caused by clipping in conical conformal projections are eliminated. Thanks to Winfried Seitz for the last two bug reports.
  • The routine GETWIN has not returned the correct position of the DISLIN graphics window for the Salford Fortran compiler. Thanks to Johannes Adam for the hint.
  • The axis scaling produced by automatic scaling could be different for the X- and Y-axes if vertical labels are plotted at the Y-axis, even if the data range and axis lengths were equal. Thanks to Philippe Bourdin for the bug report.
  • The DISLIN utility dismov was not working on Linux caused by an older software change. The bug is fixed.

25-April-2016

The DISLIN upgrade 10.6.1 is available with the following changes:

  • The routines FITSOPN, FITSCLS, FITSIMG, FITSVAL, FITSTYP, FITSSTR and FITSFLT are added to DISLIN for reading simple FITS files.
  • The routine AUTRES for defining the size of points plotted by CRVMAT can now be called in level 1, 2 and 3, and accepts negativ values for logarithmic scalings and aquidistant data grids.
  • Support for the programming language Julia is added to the Linux distribution of DISLIN for i586 (32- and 64-bit).
  • A 16-bit dependency is removed from the DISLIN TIFF format, so that the width and height of TIFF images is no longer restricted to 16-bit values.

20-February-2016

New DISLIN distributions are available for the programming language Julia in the file dl_10_jl.zip. The 32- and 64-bit versions of Julia are supported. A PDF manual for using DISLIN from Julia can also be downloaded from this site.

18-January-2016

The DISLIN version 10.6 is released. The new version is mostly a summary of the minor upgrades since version 10.5 with some new features and last bug fixes:

  • The DISLIN widget routines on X11 systems based on OpenMotif support now Unicode characters. An X11 Unicode font must be loaded and Unicode characters must be passed as UTF8 strings to a DISLIN widget routine for getting this feature. (10.6)
  • Thick lines in image formats such as PNG, TIFF, etc. are plotted with raster operations to increase the quality of image output. The vector operations used before could lead to some rounding effects. (10.6)
  • The routine WINJUS sets a character option for positioning the graphics window on the screen. (10.5.3)
  • A graphics window without any decorations such as frames and title bars is created after the option WINTYP ('POPUP'). The default value is WINTYP ('STANDARD'). (10.5.3)
  • The icon in the title bar of a graphics window can be replaced by an icon loaded with the routine WINICO (only Windows). (10.5.3)
  • A graphics window can be made unvisible and visible again with the new routine HIDWIN. (10.5.3)
  • The new routine AXSERS erases the contents of an axis system. (10.5.1)
  • The option SWGOPT ('FULL', 'MAIN') defines a fullscreen modus for the main widget created by WGINI. (10.5.1)
  • A hidden password can be entered in a text widget if the option SWGTYP ('PASSWORD', 'TEXT') is set before. (10.5.1)
  • Minimize and maximize buttons in the system menu of the main widget can be disabled with the new options SWGATT (ID, 'OFF', 'MINI') and SWGATT (ID, 'OFF', 'MAXI'). The complete system menu is disabled with the option SWGATT (ID, 'OFF', 'MENU'), where ID should be the widget ID of the main widget. (10.5.1)

1-October-2015

The Windows distributions of DISLIN are upgraded to version 10.5.4. The reason for the upgrade was the incompatibility of some DISLIN libraries with Visual Studio 2015. The problems should be fixed.

12-August-2015

The DISLIN upgrade 10.5.3 is released with the following changes:

  • The routine WINJUS sets a character option for positioning the graphics window on the screen.
  • A graphics window without any decorations such as frames and title bars is created after the option WINTYP ('POPUP'). The default value is WINTYP ('STANDARD').
  • The icon in the title bar of a graphics window can be replaced by an icon loaded with the routine WINICO (only Windows).
  • A graphics window can be made unvisible and visible again with the new routine HIDWIN.
  • The routine WINDOW for positioning the graphics window on the screen was not full compatible for X11 and Windows. For Windows, the upper left corner of the client area was used for the position, for X11, the upper left corner of the window. This is changed, so that the Windows version of WINDOW uses also the upper left corner as position for the graphics window.
  • The DISLIN distribution for Mingw and Windows 32-bit supports now the GFortran compiler by containing link scripts and pre-compiled module files for GFortran. The extra distribution for GFortran in the file dl_10_gf.zip is no longer needed and removed from the DISLIN website.
  • An additional library for g++ programming is also added to the DISLIN distribution for Mingw and Windows 32-bit, that supports the newer GNU g++ versions 4.9 and 5.1. Th name of the library is discpp51.a.
  • The Python distributions for Windows 32- and 64-bit contain additional pre-compiled modules for Python versions 3.3.x and 3.4.x.
  • The Perl distributions for Windows 32- and 64-bit support now the Perl versions 5.16.x, 5.18.x, 5.20.x and 5.22.x from ActiveState.

22-July-2015

New DISLIN distributions for the programming language R and Windows 32- and 64-bit bit are available in the file dl_10_r.zip.

26-June-2015

A new DISLIN distribution for FreeBASIC and Windows 32-bit is available in the file dl_10_fb.zip.

5-May-2015

The DISLIN upgrade 10.5.2 is released with some small new features and bug fixes:

  • Two additional arrow forms are added to VECTOR. The new options should also work for all routines, where an array option can be specified.
  • 'XEXP' is a new keyword for the routine LABELS, which has the same meaning as 'EXP', except that a times symbol is used as an operator instead of an asterisk. Thanks to Malcolm Field for the last both suggestions.
  • The DISLIN distribution for Cygwin 32-bit supports now gfortran. A linking script and pre-compiled modules for gfortran are added. The libraries were already compatible to gfortran before.
  • A bug in WGPBAR for the DISLIN C libraries on Windows is corrected. The progress bar was corrupted for the default mode 'NOSMOOTH', where the problem was introduced with DISLIN version 10.3.6. Thanks to Karim Elrayes for the hint.
  • A problem in the PDF bookmarks created by DISLIN with the routine PDFMRK is solved. Thanks to David Kubal for the report.
  • James Sanovale reported a crash in the routine INCFIL for the native Fortran libraries of DISLIN on Windows. The bug is fixed.

19-March-2015

The DISLIN upgrade 10.5.1 is released with the following new features and bug fixes:

  • The new routine AXSERS erases the contents of an axis system.
  • Multiple graphics windows can be used with the OpenGL driver.
  • The OpenGL driver in DISLIN supports also now X11 fonts on Linux and Unix systems. TrueType fonts on Windows systems were already possible in older DISLIN versions.
  • The option SWGOPT ('FULL', 'MAIN') defines a fullscreen modus for the main widget created by WGINI.
  • A hidden password can be entered in a text widget if the option SWGTYP ('PASSWORD', 'TEXT') is set before.
  • Minimize and maximize buttons in the system menu of the main widget can be disabled with the new options SWGATT (ID, 'OFF', 'MINI') and SWGATT (ID, 'OFF', 'MAXI'). The complete system menu is disabled with the option SWGATT (ID, 'OFF', 'MENU'), where ID should be the widget ID of the main widget.
  • SWGATT (ID, CFIL, 'ICON') replaces the icon in the system menu of the main widget by the icon in the file CFIL. CFIL must be in the Windows .ico format.
  • The option SWGIOP (ID, 'ICON') defines an icon ID for the system menu and for the routines WGICON and WGPICON. The icon is taken from the program resources in the executable file. The file parameter in WGICON and WGPICON will be ignored for that case (only Windows).
  • A reported bug for SURISO is corrected. In seldom cases the sign of some gradients could be wrong for a unsymmetric scaling of the Z-axis, so that light calculations and backface culling failed.
  • For LITOP3 (ID, XR, XG, XB, 'DIFFUSE') the parameters XG and XB were interchanged in the Fortran code of DISLIN.
  • Nested main widgets created by WGINI could not have different titles and help entries. The bug is fixed.

13-January-2015

The DISLIN version 10.5 is released.

The new version is mostly a summary of the minor upgrades since version 10.4 with the last bug fixes:

  • The routine DELGLB frees allocated space for global parameters in DISLIN. It can be called if DISLIN routines are no longer needed in a program. (10.5)
  • The new routine GWGGUI informs about the used GUI in a DISLIN library. (10.5)
  • The new routine FILTYP returns the type of an image or plotfile. (10.4.3)
  • GETSCM informs if automatic scaling is enabled in an axis system routine. (10.4.3)
  • ITMNCNT is a replacement of ITMCNT with an additional length parameter to avoid buffer overflows. ITMCNT is left in the library to provide compatibility. (10.4.3)
  • The new routine FREEPTR deallocates space that is allocated is DISLIN before. This routine is for example necessary if the space was allocated in an DLL. (10.4.3)
  • SHDMAP accepts the additional options 'GSHL', 'GSHI' and 'GSHH' for using GSHHS map coordinates for shading continents. (10.4.1)
  • The routine WGPICON was missing in the Fortran wrapper libraries of DISLIN. Thanks to William Podgorski for the hint.
  • A WMF file created by DISLIN could be corrupted if it was created after a graphical output to the screen. Thanks to Ziguo Zuo for the report.
  • Not all parts of list and table widgets were invisible after the option 'INVISIBLE' in SWGATT for X11. The bug is corrected.

29-September-2014

DISLIN is upgraded to version 10.4.3 with the following changes:

  • The new routine FILTYP returns the type of an image or plotfile.
  • GETSCM informs if automatic scaling is used in an axis system routine.
  • ITMNCNT is a replacement of ITMCNT with an additional length parameter to avoid buffer overflows. ITMCNT is left in the library to provide compatibility.
  • The new routine FREEPTR deallocates space that is allocated is DISLIN before. This routine is for example necessary if the space was allocated in an DLL.
  • The routine TICMOD was missing in some wrapper libraries of DISLIN. Thanks to Patrick Daly for the hint.
  • The attribute 'INACTIVE' was no longer working for push button widgets since push buttons were replaced by ownerdrawn buttons in version 10.4.0. Thanks to Markku Pirttijärvi for the hint.
  • Markku reported also a problem with the Z-scaling in GRAF3 after automatic scaling for the X-axis, which was caused in very seldom cases by a uninitialized variable in SETSCL in the DISLIN C code.
  • If automatic scaling is enabled, the axis system routines (GRAF, GRAF3, ...) does return for Fortran caluclated scaling parameters in the parameter list. This was not working for wrapper libraries (C libraries with wrapper routines for Fortran), but it's fixed now.
  • WPIXLS and RPIXLS gave link errors for DISLIN and the Portland Fortran compiler on Windows. The bug is fixed. Thanks to Te-Pu Chiang for the report.

21-July-2014

DISLIN is upgraded to version 10.4.2 with some bug fixes:

  • A uninitialized variable in the PDF driver has caused corrupted PDF files in very seldom cases. The bug is fixed.
  • The routine GWGTBL for requesting the value of a table cell has given a wrong value after a call to SENDOK.
  • Some constants for line types were not defined correctly in the files dislin.h, dislin.f90 and discpp.h. Thanks to Armin Rauthe-Schöch for the hint.
  • The new utilities dispng and disbmp are added for displaying PNG and BMP files.

28-February-2014

A new DISLIN distribution is available for .NET 64-bit.

27-February-2014

The DISLIN upgrade 10.4.1 contains bug fixes and a new feature for SHDMAP:

  • SHDMAP accepts the additional options 'GSHL', 'GSHI' and 'GSHH' for using GSHHS map coordinates for shading continents.
  • The DISLIN distribution for .NET contains now a library for passing double parameters to DISLIN.
  • A program crash happened when the routine SENDOK was used in a callback routine for dropping list widgets (only Windows). Thanks to Charles Thorsness for the hint.
  • A uninitialized variable has caused another crash in a Perl script for graphical output to a draw widget. Thanks to Michael Okuntsov for the report.
  • Johannes Adam has reported some problems for using transparency and Z-buffer. The problems should be solved.
  • A special GIF file could not be displayed by the routine INCFIL. The bug is fixed.

15-January-2014

DISLIN version 10.4 is released.

The new version 10.4 is mostly a summary of the minor upgrades since version 10.3 with a few new features and bug fixes:

  • The routine SWGBGD changes the background colour of widgets.
  • SWGFGD can change the foreground colour of widgets.
  • The push buttons created with routines such as WGPBUT, WGOK and WGQUIT are replaced by OWNERDRAW buttons for Windows, so that the background colour of the buttons can now be modified. The appearance of the buttons should be the same.
  • The new routines WGICON and WGPICON of version 10.3.6 are ported to X11 systems.
  • The option SWGTYP ('NOSIZE', 'MAIN') was no longer working since a software change in version 10.3.6. The bug is fixed. Thanks to Dr. Guntram Buchheim for the hint.
  • Separator widgets created by WGSEP were not displayed correctly in nested widget trees for Windows. The bug is fixed. Thanks to Alessandro Vicini for the report.
  • A possible overflow in the widget routine WGBOX was reported by Clive Jones if more than 100 list entries were passed to WGBOX. Thanks to Clive for the hint. The problem is solved.

The new features above are described in the online and HTML documentation of DISLIN. A description of all features since DISLIN version 10.0, which are not covered by the DISLIN book, is also available in the PDF document dislin_new.pdf.

16-December-2013

There is a new web design for the DISLIN pages that corresponds to the new web design of the Max Planck Society.

25-November-2013

A new DISLIN distribution for Cygwin 64-bit and Windows is available in the file dl_10_gc.zip. The distribution is created with gcc 4.8.2 and supports the languages C/C++, Fortran, Perl and Python.

15-November-2013

A new DISLIN upgrade with the version 10.3.6 is available. The following changes are applied:

  • The routine LDIMG loads PNG, BMP, GIF and TIFF images into an array. RapidEye satellite TIFF files are also supported by LDIMG.
  • The routines WGICON and WGPICON create label and push button widgets with icons as labels. Thanks to Clive Jones for the suggestion. This feature is only supported on Windows systems at the moment.
  • The routines WGIMG and WGPIMG create label and push button widgets with images as labels.
  • The DISLIN main widget can now have scroll bars with the option SWGTYP ('SCROLL', 'MAIN').
  • The option 'GREEK' is added to the routine SWGOPT for the keyword 'CODING' for passing greek coded characters (ISO-8859-7) to widget routines.
  • The buttons of box widgets can be ordered in form of a matrix with the new option SWGTYP ('GRID', 'BOX').
  • The routine SWGTXT can now modify the labels of push button widgets including the labels of WGQUIT and WGOK.
  • Undefined values (NaN) are handled in curves if the option NANCRV ('ON') is used. NaNs are then plotted as gaps and reported in the DISLIN protocol. If a compiler doesn't support NaN values, the routine NANCRV gives a warning.
  • 'MAPNDG' is a new keyword in LABELS for plotting geographic labels without degree symbols.

13-September-2013

DISLIN is upgraded to version 10.3.5 with the following changes:

  • The new routine LEGSEL sets a selection of legend lines plotted by LEGEND.
  • The routine FILSIZ returns the size of an image file, where the image file can have the formats PNG, GIF, TIFF and BMP.
  • SGWSCL accepts now the widget ID of a draw widget and can modify the value of scrollbars in draw widgets.
  • GWGSCL is extended to request the values of scrollbars in draw widgets.

26-July-2013

A new DISLIN distribution is available for Linux on Raspberry Pi. The distribution supports programming with gcc, g++, gfortran, Perl, Python, Java, Ruby and TCL. The Raspberry Pi is a small and cheap single-board computer with an ARM processor.

19-July-2013

DISLIN is upgraded to version 10.3.4 with the following changes:

  • The routine SWGCB3 sets callback routines for mouse wheel events in draw widgets. Thanks to Miguel Hermanns for the suggestion.
  • The new routine FILWIN defines a rectangle of an image that can be included with the routine INCFIL instead of the full image.
  • A reported bug in the cursor routines for scrolled draw widgets is corrected. The position of the cursor was not returned correctly. Thanks to Juan Garbayo de Pablo for the hint.
  • A new version of the IDL wrappers for calling DISLIN from IDL is available in the download section. Thanks to Philippe Bourdin for the new version.
  • My production system for the DISLIN Windows libraries and distributions is moved from Windows XP to Windows 7 64-bit. I hope that everything is working as before.

13-June-2013

The most DISLIN distributions are upgraded to version 10.3.3. The Mac OSX distributions will follow in a few days. The following changes are applied:

  • The new routine PROJ3D defines a perspective or orthographic 3D projection. A perspective view is used by default.
  • For an orthographic projection the projected plot can be scaled by a factor defined with VSCL3D.
  • The option 'RUSSIAN' is added to the routine SWGOPT for the keyword 'CODING' for passing cyrillic coded characters (ISO-8859-5) to widget routines.
  • The symbol number -1 is allowed in the routine MARKER for suppressing the plotting of symbols in routines such as CURVE and ERRBAR.
  • The plotting extensions for Java are now created from the double precision libraries of DISLIN. DISLIN routines that expect Floatingpoint arrays are overloaded, so that float or double arrays can be passed to DISLIN.
  • The plotting extensions for Python are also created from the double precision libraries of DISLIN, so that all plotting extensions (Perl, Python, Java, Ruby, TCL) use now the double precision libraries of DISLIN.
  • A new DISLIN distribution for Perl 5.16.3 and Windows 64-bit is available.

23-April-2013

Some small changes are applied to the new DISLIN version 10.3.2:

  • The distance of scan lines is reduced for shaded characters of vector fonts for getting a better shading in high-resolution image files. Thanks to Dr. Armin Rauthe-Schöch for the hint.
  • The new routine SHDFAC sets a scaling factor for the distance of scan lines in shading patterns. The default value is 1.
  • Not all points in an axis system were converted to map coordinates by the routine PT2POS for some projections. The bug is fixed.
  • A bug for the keywords 'LAND' and 'SEA' in the routine SHDMAP is corrected. Some shadings were wrong for special projections.
  • The routine WINDBR for plotting wind barbs can now plot wind flags on the opposite side of symbols if the symbol length is specified as a negative number. Thanks to Prof. Mark Sinclair for the suggestion and for the last two bug reports.

12-March-2013

DISLIN is upgraded to version 10.3.1 with the following changes:

  • The new routine EXPIMG copies the contents of the DISLIN graphics window to a PostScript or PDF file. It can also replace routines such as RPNG, RGIF, RTIFF, RBMP and RPPM for copying the contents of the graphics window to image files.
  • The keywords 'SEA' and 'LAND' are added to SHDMAP for sea and land shading.
  • PT2POS is an inverse routine to POS2PT for converting plot coordinates to map coordinates.
  • A clipping bug in SHDMAP for conical projections is corrected. Thanks to Mark Sinclair for the hint.
  • Shaded contours plotted by CONSHD could contain some not shaded thin lines for PostScript and PDF output. The bug is fixed. Thanks to Joachim Eichhorn for the report.
  • The keyword 'ON' was not working in FILOPT. Thanks to Armin Rauthe-Schoech for the hint.

15-January-2013

DISLIN version 10.3 is released.

Here is a brief summary of the new DISLIN features since version 10.2. The most of the features were already added by minor patch releases.

  • SURSHC plots a shaded surface, where an extra matrix can be specified for calculating surface colours (10.3).
  • WGPOPB and WGAPPB are new widget routines for plotting icons instead of strings in widget menus (10.3).
  • The keywords 'TOP', 'MIDDLE' and 'BOTTOM' are added to the routine TXTJUS for vertical alignment of text and numbers (10.2.7).
  • A background box for text and numbers can be plotted if the routine TXTBGD is called before (10.2.7).
  • New keywords 'GRAY' and 'HALF' can be used with the routine COLOR (10.2.7).
  • Different colours can be defined for the pen-downs in line styles with the new routine LINCLR (10.2.7).
  • GAPSIZ is an entension of the routine GAPCRV for allowing gaps in curves for X- and Y-coordinates (10.2.7).
  • The routines PLYINI and PLYFIN allow the output of 3D polygones created by DISLIN to a .PLY file (10.2.7).
  • The routine INCFIL supports now the additional image formats PNG and TIFF for importing images (10.2.6).
  • Unicode characters coded in UTF8 can be used in the DISLIN widget routines if the new option SGWOPT ('UTF8', 'CODING') is used. The default coding is 'ANSI'. At the moment, this feature is only available for Windows systems, but not for X11 systems (10.2.6).
  • The new options SWGIOP (N, 'HMARGIN') and SWGIOP (N, 'VMARGIN') change the horizontal and vertical text margins in text and push button widgets (only X11) (10.2.6).
  • Image files included with the routine INCFIL can now be scaled to a region on the screen after the option FILOPT ('ON', 'SCALE'). By default images are included without a scaling (10.2.5).
  • The slider value at scrollbars can be suppressed with the new option SWGOPT ('NOVALUE', 'SLIDER') (10.2.5).
  • The ZLIB routines in DISLIN used for compression in PNG and PDF formats are updated to the current ZLIB version 1.2.7 (10.2.5).
  • The new routine TTFONT reads a TrueType font file, so that the characters of the font can be displayed in DISLIN plots. The intention of the routine was to make Unicode characters available for all output formats (i.e. by using 'arialuni.ttf'). By default, only the outlines of the characters are plotted. After a call to SHDCHA characters will be shaded (10.2.4).
  • The new routines FRMBAR, SPCBAR, JUSBAR and POSBAR modify the appearance of colour bars in 3D colour plots. FRMBAR defines the thickness of frames around colour bars, SPCBAR sets the space between colour bars and axis systems, and JUSBAR defines the alignment of colour bars. The routine POSBAR sets the position of colour bars, where colour bars can now be plotted near the left and right X-axes, or near the lower and upper Y-axes (10.2.4).
  • The new routine LEGBGD (NCLR) defines a background colour for legends. The default value NCLR = -1 means, that the background is not plotted (10.2.2).
  • CSRLIN is a similar cursor routine to CSRREC and returns the endpoints of a line constructed with the mouse.
  • The DISLIN C++ libraries contain additional overloaded methods for passing float arrays, so that you can either pass double or float arrays to DISLIN methods (10.2.2).
  • A new XML output format with the keyword 'IPE' is added to METAFL. The output format can be interpreted by the graphics editor Ipe (10.2.1).
  • Anti-aliased lines can be enabled in image formats such as PNG, TIFF and BMP with the option LINMOD ('ON', 'SMOOTH'). RGB mode of the output format is required for this option (see IMGFMT) (10.2.1).
  • The width of the dropping list in a dropping list widget can be modified with the option SWGIOP (N, 'DLIST'), where N contains the number of pixels (if negative), or the number of characters (if positive). The default value N = 0 means that the dropping list has the same width as the widget (10.2.1).
  • Some DISLIN distributions (Linux i586, Visual C++ and MinGW) contain additional C++ libraries for using DISLIN from C++. At the moment all DISLIN routines are implemented as methods of the class DISLIN, so that the description of the routines in the DISLIN manual is also valid for C++ (10.2.1).

The new features above are described in the online and HTML documentation of DISLIN. A description of all features since DISLIN version 10.0, which are not covered by the DISLIN book, is also available in the PDF document dislin_new.pdf.

4-December-2012

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.2.7 with the following changes:

  • The keywords 'TOP', 'MIDDLE' and 'BOTTOM' are added to the routine TXTJUS for vertical alignment of text and numbers.
  • A background box for text and numbers can be plotted if the routine TXTBGD is called before.
  • New keywords 'GRAY' and 'HALF' can be used with the routine COLOR.
  • Different colours can be defined for the pen-downs in line styles with the new routine LINCLR.
  • GAPSIZ is an entension of the routine GAPCRV for allowing gaps in curves for X- and Y-coordinates.
  • The routines PLYINI and PLYFIN allow the output of 3D polygones created by Dislin to a .PLY file.

The new routines are described in the online and HTML documentation of Dislin. A description of all features since Dislin version 10.0, which are not covered by the Dislin book, is also available in the PDF document dislin_new.pdf

9-November-2012

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.2.6 with the following changes:

  • The routine INCFIL supports now the additional image formats PNG and TIFF for importing images.
  • Unicode characters coded in UTF8 can be used in the Dislin widget routines if the new option SGWOPT ('UTF8', 'CODING') is used. The default coding is 'ANSI'. At the moment, this feature is only available for Windows systems, but not for X11 systems.
  • The new options SWGIOP (N, 'HMARGIN') and SWGIOP (N, 'VMARGIN') change the horizontal and vertical text margins in text and push button widgets (only X11).
  • A bug in the polygon shading algorithm for image formats is corrected. There could be some missing lines if the polygon must be clipped. Thanks to Mark Sinclair for the hint.
  • Smoothed triangles plotted by routines such as CRVTRI and CRVQDR could have swapped colours at the edges. This bug was introduced in version 10.2.3 by a software change and should be fixed now.

10-October-2012

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.2.5 with the following changes:

  • Characters from a font defined with TTFONT were not plotted correctly after the option PAGORG ('BOTTOM'). The bug is fixed. Thanks to Ahron Fegelman for the hint.
  • Another bug in TTFONT reported by Orlando Hevia is fixed. TrueType fonts containing short offsets for glyph data caused a program crash. Thanks to Orlando for the report.
  • Image files included with the routine INCFIL can now be scaled to a region on the screen after the option FILOPT ('ON', 'SCALE'). By default images are included without a scaling.
  • The slider value at scrollbars can be suppressed with the new option SWGOPT ('NOVALUE', 'SLIDER')
  • The ZLIB routines in Dislin used for compression in PNG and PDF formats are updated to the current ZLIB version 1.2.7.

26-September-2012

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.2.4 with the following changes:

  • The new routine TTFONT reads a TrueType font file, so that the characters of the font can be displayed in Dislin plots. The intention of the routine was to make Unicode characters available for all output formats (i.e. by using 'arialuni.ttf'). By default, only the outlines of the characters are plotted. After a call to SHDCHA characters will be shaded.
  • The new routines FRMBAR, SPCBAR, JUSBAR and POSBAR modify the appearance of colour bars in 3D colour plots. FRMBAR defines the thickness of frames around colour bars, SPCBAR sets the space between colour bars and axis systems, and JUSBAR defines the alignment of colour bars. The routine POSBAR sets the position of colour bars, where colour bars can now be plotted near the left and right X-axes, or near the lower and upper Y-axes.
  • Grids plotted by the routine GRID should no longer overplot axis lines. Thanks to Dr. Armin Rauthe-Schöch for the bug report.
  • A bug in the routine FIXSPC is fixed. Characters were not correctly centered for PostScript, Windows and X11 fonts.

A description of all new features since Dislin version 10.0 is also available in the PDF document dislin_new.pdf

31-July-2012

The widget routine WGFIL can block and freeze other Dislin widgets on X11 systems when a file selection box is opened. The Linux and Unix distributions of Dislin are patched and updated. The bug was caused by a software change in version 10.2.1. Thanks to Dr. Josef Zweck for the report.

27-July-2012

A bug in the native Fortran 90/95 libraries of Dislin for the quickplot routines QPLSUR and QPLCLR is corrected. The scaling of the Z-axis was not calculated correctly in the routines. Thanks to Prof. Te-Pu Chiang for the hint.

25-July-2012

Philippe Bourdin from Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research has witten an IDL wrapper for Dislin. Dislin routines can be called directly from IDL. The IDL wrapper and examples are available in the file dislin_wrapper_idl.tar.gz.

17-July-2012

A syntax error in PostScript files with multiple pages is corrected, which was introduced with the new upgrade 10.2.3. Thanks to Dr. Armin Rauthe-Schöch for the hint.

13-July-2012

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.2.3 with a few bug fixes:

  • The routine TXTURE was not working in the wrapper Fortran libraries of Dislin. Native Fortran libraries are not affected.
  • Callback routines for the widget routine WGBOX were not executed on Linux and Unix systems. This bug was introduced with version 10.2.1. Thanks to Farzin Sereshti for the report of the last two bugs.
  • The Python interpreter was hanging when callback routines for widgets are used together with the Numpy package. Thanks to Gerald Cecil for the hint.
  • Some old drivers for Tektronix emulation and Kyocera Prescribe output are removed from the Dislin code.
  • A slight performance improvement is achieved for text, line and triangle output. Hopefully, without introducing new bugs.

8-June-2012

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.2.2 with the following changes and bug fixes:

  • The new routine LEGBGD (NCLR) defines a background colour for legends. The default value NCLR = -1 means, that the background is not plotted.
  • CSRLIN is a similar cursor routine to CSRREC and returns the endpoints of a line constructed with the mouse.
  • The Dislin C++ libraries contain additional overloaded methods for passing float arrays, so that you can either pass double or float arrays to Dislin methods.
  • A bug in the Fortran wrapper routine for WGINI and Linux is corrected. The bug was introduced with version 10.2.1 and causes a crash of Dislin widget programs on Linux written in Fortran. Thanks to Farzin Sereshti for the hint.
  • The routine RVYNAM for modifying labels and titles of the right Y-axis was ignored in ADDLAB. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for the report.

9-May-2012

Two bugs introduced with the new version 10.2.1 are corrected:

  • Cursor routines were not working in draw widgets on Linux and Unix systems.
  • The line width in PostScript files was incorrect for the native Fortran libraries of Dislin.

The affected Dislin distributions are replaced.

2-May-2012

The most Dislin distributions are upgraded to version 10.2.1 with the following changes:

  • a new XML output format with the keyword 'IPE' is added to METAFL. The output format can be interpreted by the graphics editor Ipe.
  • Anti-aliased lines can be enabled in image formats such as PNG, TIFF and BMP with the option LINMOD ('ON', 'SMOOTH'). RGB mode of the output format is required for this option (see IMGFMT).
  • The width of the dropping list in a dropping list widget can be modified with the option SWGIOP (N, 'DLIST'), where N contains the number of pixels (if negative), or the number of characters (if positive). The default value N = 0 means that the dropping list has the same width as the widget.
  • Some Dislin distributions (Linux i586, Visual C++ and MinGW) contain additional C++ libraries for using Dislin from C++. At the moment all Dislin routines are implemented as methods of the class Dislin, so that the description of the routines in the Dislin manual is also valid for C++. Here is a short example of a Dislin C++ program using the new libraries:
          #include <iostream> #include "discpp.h" int main () { Dislin g; g.metafl ("cons"); g.disini (); g.messag ("This is
          a test!", 100, 100); g.disfin (); }
        

    I think that some more classes (i.e for axis system and curves) and an extra documentation will follow later.

22-February-2012

A new Dislin distribution for Java and Windows 64-bit is available in the file dl_10_jv.zip.

13-February-2012

  • The interpreting prgramming language Tcl is now supported by Dislin. Pre- compiled plotting extensions for Tcl are added to the i586 and i586_64 Linux distributions of Dislin and a new Dislin distribution for Tcl 8.5 ActiveState is available in the file dl_10_tc.zip.
  • Plotting extensions for Ruby and Tcl are added to the FreeBSD distributions of Dislin.

17-January-2012

A new Dislin distribution for Ruby 1.9 and Windows is available in the file dl_10_rb.zip. The extension module is compiled with the MinGW port of gcc and linked with the Dislin library for MinGW. Plotting extensions for the programming language Ruby are also added to the 32- and 64-bit Linux distributions of Dislin.

22-November-2011

A pre-compiled module for Perl 5.14.x is added to the Linux i586 and i586_64 distributions of Dislin, which is compatible with the Perl versions on openSUSE 12.1 and Fedora 16.

17-November-2011

Dislin version 10.2 is released.

Here is a brief summary of the new Dislin features since version 10.1. The most of the features were already added by minor patch releases.

  • The new routine CURV4D plots 3-D symbols with different colours calculated from a colour scale.
  • The routine LEGTYP defines whether legend lines are plotted in vertical or horizontal direction.
  • The added routine TRIFLC plots triangles with interpolated colours.
  • TR3AXS is a new 3-D base transformation routine for a rotation about an arbitrary axis.
  • WGSEP can also draw separators in popup menus if the ID of a popop menu is passed to WGSEP.
  • GWGSIZ is a new routine that returns the size of widgets in pixels.
  • Frames around draw widgets may be suppressed with the option SWGTYP ('OFF', 'FRAME').
  • The editability of text widgets can be disabled with the option SWGOPT ('NOEDIT', 'TEXT').
  • Routines for changing widget attributes such as SWGTXT can also be used for widgets with the attribute 'INVISIBLE'.
  • The new option 'STRING' is added to SWGTYP for the class 'POPUP' to connect a popup widget directly with a callback routine.
  • The resizing of the main widget can be disabled with the option 'NORESIZE' in SWGTYP for the class 'MAIN'.
  • The latest version 2.1.1 of the GSHHS map coordinates is supported.
  • The Windows distributions for Perl and Python support now multiple versions of Perl and Python, so that extra distributions for certain versions are obsolete and deleted.
  • Support for Absoft Fortran is added to the standard Linux distribution of Dislin and tested with the current Absoft Fortran compilers. Thanks to Absoft for the licenses. The special Dislin distributions for Absoft Fortran are no longer necessary and removed from the server.
  • Some Dislin distributions for older systems such as FreeBSD 5.4 and 6.0 and Linux on Sparc processors are no longer supported.

7-November-2011

A new Dislin distribution for Absoft Pro Fortran 64-bit for Windows is available in the file dl_10_af.zip of the Windows 64-bit distributions.

27-October-2011

The Dislin distribution dl_10_pl.zip for Perl and Windows supports now the Perl version 5.14.2. Precompiled modules for Perl 5.14.2, 5.10.1 and 5.8.0 are included in the distribution.

19-October-2011

  • The Dislin setup programs for Windows are recompiled and relinked, so that the Compatibility Assistant on Windows 7 and Windows Vista should no longer give a compatibility warning for the setup programs.
  • The Dislin distributions for Linux i586 and i586_64 support now Python3. A Dislin module for Python3 is included which is compiled with Python 3.1.2, but compatible to Python 3.2. The source code of the module and modified Dislin examples for Python3 are also included.

14-October-2011

The Linux i586 and i586_64 distributions of Dislin seem to be compatible with the new Ubuntu release 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot). I have made two test installations of Dislin 10.1.5 on Ubuntu 11.10 32-bit and 64-bit. A description of the test installations is available in

7-October-2011

A bug in the routine SWGSIZ of the new upgrade 10.1.5 was detected. The size of the main widget specified by SWGSIZ was ignored. Corrected Dislin distributions are available.

6-October-2011

A Dislin upgrade with the version number 10.1.5 is available. It contains the following new features and bug fixes:

  • The routine LEGTYP defines whether legend lines are plotted in vertical or horizontal direction. Before version 10.1.5 legend lines could only be plotted in vertical direction.
  • The new routine TRIFLC plots triangles with interpolated colours.
  • GWGSIZ is a new routine that returns the size of widgets in pixels.
  • Frames around draw widgets can be suppressed with the option SWGTYP ('OFF', 'FRAME').
  • The editability of text widgets can be disabled with the option SWGOPT ('NOEDIT', 'TEXT').
  • Routines for changing widget attributes such as SWGTXT can also be used for widgets with the attribute 'INVISIBLE'.
  • Multiple calls of WGDLIS for creating dropping list widgets could cause a program crash on Linux systems. The problem is fixed. Thanks to Miguel Hermanns for the report and for the suggestions above.
  • The position of the Dislin graphics window was ignored by some Linux/Unix Window managers. The problem is solved by adding a XMoveMindow instruction after creating and mapping the window. Thanks to Benni Motz for the hint.
  • If the thickness of curves was defined with the routine LINWID, the thickness was not automatically considered in legends plotted by LEGEND. Also, the line width in LINWID was ignored for OpenGL output. Both bugs are fixed.
  • Two additional Windows distributions are available for Python 2.7 64-bit and Python 3.2 64-bit. Thanks to Edwin A. Valentijn for the suggestion.

2-September-2011

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.1.4 with the following changes:

  • A move of the graphics window with the mouse could close a Dislin X11 window if the window was too large for the screen. The bug was introduced in version 10.1.0 with the routine WINCBK. Thanks to Dick Hearsey for the hint.
  • The Unicode font 'Arial Unicode MS' was not loaded by WINFNT. Instead, the normal ASCII Arial font was loaded. The bug is fixed.
  • The routine AXSBGD for setting the background colour of axis systems failed for geographical axis systems plotted by GRAFMP. The problem is solved.
  • The new option 'STRING' is added to SWGTYP for the class 'POPUP' to connect a popup widget directly with a callback routine.
  • The resizing of the main widget can be disabled with the option 'NORESIZE' in SWGTYP for the class 'MAIN'. Thanks to Miguel Hermanns for the last both suggestions.
  • Miguel reported also that the widget routine WGSEP was not working for the native Fortran libraries of Dislin for Windows. The bug is fixed.
  • The utilities disman and dishlp are modified and recompiled for a better keyboard navigation.

14-July-2011

I have created a discussion group for Dislin users at groups.google.com. The name of the group is dislin-users with the web site http://groups.google.com/group/dislin-users. You are invited to join this group.

18-June-2011

New Dislin distributions are available which solve the following reported problems:

  • The filling of symbols was shifted in PostScript and PDF files if one of the routines ORIGIN or CENTER was called before. The bug appears only in Dislin version 10.1.2. Thanks to Wesley Metzger for the hint.
  • An access violation was reported for DISFIN if the option ERRDEV('FILE') was enabled in combination with a user-defined filename specified by ERRFIL and some Dislin warnings. The bug was introduced with version 10.1 in the C libraries of Dislin. Thanks to David Baxendale for the report.
  • The layout of Dislin widgets was looking strange on X11 systems when the X11 fonts used by Dislin were not installed. Some newer Linux systems such as Ubuntu 11.04, Fedora 14/15 and Linux Mint do not install these fonts by default. For that case, the widget routines use now alternate fonts. Thanks to Michael Rochester for the hint.
  • The latest version 2.1.1 of the GSHHS map coordinates is now supported.

The version number of the updated Dislin libraries is 10.1.3.

31-May-2011

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.1.2 with the following changes:

  • A problem with the size of dropping list widgets is fixed. The problem appeared when the items of a dropping are replaced by a different number of items. Thanks to David Aliaga for the report.
  • A clipping problem with in routine RLINE in a GRFINI/GRFFIN environment is solved. Thanks to Karl Bernhardi for the hint.
  • Optional scrollbars in WGDRAW were not working for the native Fortran libraries of Dislin for Windows. The bug is fixed. Thanks to Nikolai Gerzen for the hint.
  • Separator widgets were displayed in the wrong parent widget if a second widget tree was created. Thanks to Georg Viehhauser for the report.
  • The new routine CURV4D plots 3-D symbols with different colours calculated from a colour scale.
  • TR3AXS is a new 3-D base transformation routine for a rotation about an arbitrary axis.

9-April-2011

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.1.1 with some small bug fixes and changes:

  • A problem with blank pixels was reported for shaded contours plotted by conshd and OpenGL output. The algorithm is so modified in conshd that only triangles are generated, which makes the algorithm nearly 3 times faster for OpenGL output. Thanks to Edward Carrol for the hint.
  • Additional labels plotted with ADDLAB at logarithmic colour bars were not positioned correctly. The bug is fixed.
  • A trailing decimal point was missing in axis labels if the option LABDIG (0, CAX) was used before. Only the Dislin C libraries were affected.
  • GFortran support is added to the Mac OSX Intel distributions of Dislin. Precompiled modules for GFortran 4.4.1 and GFortran 4.6.0 are added to the 32- and 64-bit distributions.
  • The GFortran modules in the Dislin Linux i586 distributions are updated for GFortran 4.5.0.
  • GFortran support is added to the FreeBSD 8.x distribution of Dislin.

7-March-2011

Debian packages of the Dislin distributions for Linux i586 are now available. The packages can be installed easily on Debian and Ubuntu systems with the dpkg command. Test installations are made for Debian 6 and Ubuntu 10.10 (32 and 64 bit).

5-March-2011

A new Dislin distribution for FreeBSD 64-bit is available in the file dislin-10.1.fbsd.64.tar.gz. The distribution is created with FreeBSD version 8.1. It supports programming with gcc, g77, gfortran, Python and Perl.

3-March-2011

A bug in the Dislin distribution dl_10_pf.zip for Portland Fortran (wrapper routines) is fixed. The bug could cause a program crash when a callback routine defined for a draw widget was called. Other Dislin distributions are not affected. Both Dislin distributions for Portland Fortran on Windows (native and wrapper routines) are tested successfully with the new Portland compiler version 11.2.

22-February-2011

The Dislin distribution for Python 3.1 and Windows in the file dl_10_p3.zip is updated to support the new Python version 3.2. The Dislin distribution contains now pre-compiled modules for Python 3.1 and Python 3.2.

15-February-2011

Dislin version 10.1 is released.

Here is a brief summary of the new features since version 10.0:

  • The routine WINCBK sets a user-defined routine which is called in DISFIN when the graphics window is resized. The event loop is terminated in DISFIN before calling the user-defined routine. The callback routine can be used for redrawing the plot with a new scaling.
  • GETWIN does now return the current size of the graphics window even if the size is changed with the mouse. Before this change GETWIN has just returned the values defined by WINSIZ or WINDOW.
  • The routine DOEVNT can be called during a time intensive plot program for processing expose events. Until yet, DOEVNT could only be used in widget programs.
  • The keyword 'GL' in the routine METAFL defines an OpenGL window for using hardware acceleration.
  • The new widget option SWGOPT ('TOP', 'DIALOG') sets a topmost attribute for the dialog widgets DWGMSG, DWGBUT, DWGTXT, DWGFIL, DWGLIS and MSGBOX, so that the widgets are not overplotted by any other widgets or windows. This option is working on Windows, but not on X11 systems.
  • The number of displayed rows in scrolled table and list widgets can be modified with the new routine SWGIOP. The default value is 8.
  • The routine MAPIMG plots a map file in BMP or GIF format to a geographical axis system. MAPIMG expects some parameters which describe the location, scale and rotation of the map image. They have the same meaning as the attributes in the ESRI World File Format.
  • CONSHD3D is a new routine for plotting 3-D contours. The routine is similar to SURSHD, except for the surface colours, which correspond to contour levels.
  • The routine WGSEP separates widgets by drawing vertical and horizontal lines.
  • QPLCRV is a new quick plot routine for plotting multiple curves.
  • The automatic scaling in quick plots can be overwritten by the routine QPLSCL.
  • The widget routines DWGFIL and WGFIL can now display a file selection box for saving files if the option SWGTYP ('SAVE', 'FILE') is used before. The default behaviour is SWGTYP ('OPEN', 'FILE').
  • The routine DWGERR returns a status if the OK button is pressed in the routines DWGFIL, DWGLIS and DWGBUT.
  • A new routine with the name FBARS is added to Dislin for plotting financial bars in form of candlestick and line charts. A few examples of financial bars are added to the Gallery.
  • The routine DISENV is added to Dislin for setting the Dislin environment within a program.

28-Januar-2011

The Dislin distributions for Intel and Digital Visual Fortran in the files dl_10_df.zip and dl_10_if.zip are updated since flat triangles may not be plotted for PDF and PostScript output in routines such as CRVTRI. The bug was introduced by a software change in Dislin version 10.0 C. Other distributions are not affected. Thanks to Gregory J. Michels for the hint.

19-Januar-2011

Two bugs are reported for the native Dislin Fortran libraries on Windows.

  • The option SWGOPT ("TOP", "DIALOG") was not working for the dialog widget routine DWGFIL.
  • The OK button in the dialog widget routine DWGLIS was not displayed correctly.

Both bugs are fixed. Other Dislin libraries than the native Fortran libraries on Windows are not affected. Thanks to Richard M. Hearsey who reported the bugs.

5-Januar-2011

A new Dislin distribution for Python 2.7 and Windows is available in the file dl_10_p1.zip. The new distribution replaces the distribution for Python 2.4, which is no longer supported.

21-December-2010

Two small reported bugs are fixed in the new Dislin upgrade 10.0 E. No new features are added.

  • The routines RPNG, RTIFF, RGIF and RBMP for copying the contents of graphical windows to files were not working for OpenGL windows. The bug is fixed.
  • Flat triangles may not be clipped correctly at axis system borders for some image formats such as PNG, TIFF BMP and GIF.

26-November-2010

The Unix distributions of Dislin for Solaris (Sparc and i386) are updated because of a reported bug for the SYMBOL routine in the Fortran libraries. The bug is only present in Dislin version 10.0 D for Solaris Fortran, other Dislin distributions are not affected.

27-October-2010

A new Dislin upgrade with the version number 10.0 D is available. The upgrade contains the following changes:

  • The keyword 'GL' in the routine METAFL defines an OpenGL window for using hardware acceleration. Especially, shaded surfaces can be plotted multiple times faster with hardware acceleration, depending on your graphics card and OpenGL drivers. By default, Dislin plots to the OpenGL back buffer, which is copied to the front buffer by the routines DISFIN and SENDBF. If the option X11MOD ('NOSTORE') is set, Dislin plots directly to the front buffer (graphics window). At the moment, multiple windows, cursor routines and hardware fonts are not supported by OpenGL windows.
  • The new widget option SWGOPT ('TOP', 'DIALOG') sets a topmost attribute for the dialog widgets DWGMSG, DWGBUT, DWGTXT, DWGFIL, DWGLIS and MSGBOX, so that the widgets are not overplotted by any other widgets or windows. This option is working on Windows, but not on X11 systems.
  • A reported bug for background colours in table cells created by the routine WGTBL is corrected. Thanks to Charles Thorsness for the hint.

17-September-2010

  • A new Dislin distribution for gcc/gfortran Mingw64 and Windows 64-bit systems is available in the file dl_10_mg.zip. The libraries in the distribution are created with gcc 4.5.1 downloaded from the site http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net.

27-August-2010

  • A reported bug for shaded characters plotted by the routines HELVE, HELVES and SERIF after the option SHDCHA is corrected. The bug was caused by a new shading algorithm in version 10.0 B. Prior Dislin versions are not affected. Thanks to Armin Rauthe-Schoech for the bug report.
  • A new Dislin distribution for the current FreeBSD version 8.1 is available in the Unix file dislin-10.0.fbsd.tar.gz.

20-August-2010

A new patch level is applied to Dislin with some bug fixes and small changes:

  • The routine CONSHD for plotting filled contours gave corrupted results for cell filling and graphical output to a window or to an image format. The bug was introduced with version 10.0 B. Other Dislin versions are not affected.
  • SWGFOC for setting the focus to a widget was not working for list widgets. The bug is corrected.
  • The routines WGBOX, WGLIS and WGDLIS accept now the value 0 for the pre-selected element, which means that no element is pre-selected.
  • The number of displayed rows in scrolled table and list widgets can be modified with the new routine SWGIOP. The default value is 8.
  • The routine CRVMAT does now better support the plotting of surfaces for logarithmic grids in the X/Y plane if the routine AUTRES (0,0) is called before.

The new version number of Dislin is 10.0 C.

16-July-2010

The Dislin distribution dl_10_dm.zip for the Digital Mars C/C++ compiler does now also support the Digital Mars D compiler on Windows.

1-July-2010

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.0 B with some internal changes:

  • The vector shading algorithm for polygons is replaced by a raster shading algorithm for image formats such as PNG, TIFF and GIF output. The raster algorithm is nearly three times faster than the vector algorithm.
  • Hardware clipping is now used for rectangle axis systems and graphical output to the screen and to image, PDF and PostScript files. The hardware clipping protects better the axes of an axis system against overplotting and allows an easier and faster clipping of polygons and hardware characters.
  • A reported bug for disgcl is fixed that could cause a segmentation fault on Linux and Unix systems. The bug was introduced with the new routine DISENV in March 2010. Thanks to Mike Rochester for the hint.
  • A new Dislin distribution for Python 3.1 and Windows is available in the file dl_10_p3.zip.

9-June-2010

  • A clipping bug for rectangles plotted by the routines CONSHD, CRVMAT and CURVE3 is corrected. Outside of the axis system lying rectangles were not clipped correctly. The bug was introduced with version 10.0A by a software change for the new routine CONSHD3D.

20-May-2010

Dislin is upgraded to version 10.0 A with the following new features:

  • The new routine MAPIMG plots a map file in BMP or GIF format to a geographical axis system. MAPIMG expects some parameters which describe the location, scale and rotation of the map image. They have the same meaning as the attributes in the ESRI World File Format.
  • CONSHD3D is a new routine for plotting 3-D contours. The routine is similar to SURSHD, except for the surface colours, which correspond to contour levels.
  • The routine WGSEP separates widgets by drawing vertical and horizontal lines.
  • QPLCRV is a new quick plot routine for plotting multiple curves.
  • The automatic scaling in quick plots can be overwritten by the routine QPLSCL.

A complete description of the new routines is available in the online help of Dislin, or in the PDF document dislin_new.pdf.

The following reported bugs are fixed in version 10.0 A:

  • The symbol numbers 22 and 23 were not accepted by LEGPAT.
  • The inner German border is removed from the map files. Sorry, 20 years too late. Thanks to Dr. Armin Rauthe-Schoech for the last both hints.
  • The Greek PostScript font was not reset correctly in complicate TeX formulas. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for the report.
  • SWGCLR was not working for label widgets on Windows. The bug was caused by a previous software change.
  • Uneven labels could be generated if an logarithmic axis is automatically scaled with SETSCL.

26-March-2010

  • It's now possible to register to a mailing list to be informed about new Dislin releases and important changes.

23-March-2010

The following changes are applied to Dislin:

  • A clipping problem for shaded contours in azimuthal projections is corrected. Thanks to Andreas Geilmann for the report.
  • The copyright symbol was missing in the ISO-1 character set of Dislin. The TeX instruction \copyright is added to Dislin to plot the copyright symbol. Thanks to Kai Muehlbauer for the hint.
  • The widget routines DWGFIL and WGFIL can now display a file selection box for saving files if the option SWGTYP ('SAVE', 'FILE') is used before. The default behaviour is SWGTYP ('OPEN', 'FILE').
  • The new routine DWGERR returns a status if the OK button is pressed in the routines DWGFIL, DWGLIS and DWGBUT. Thanks to Peter Sellmair for the last both suggestions.
  • A new routine with the name FBARS is added to Dislin for plotting financial bars in form of candlestick and line charts. A few examples of financial bars are added to the Gallery. Thanks to Oguz Tanrikulu for the suggestion.

The changes are added to the online documentation of Dislin.

5-March-2010

The following bug fixes and suggestions are applied to Dislin:

  • The clipping borders are not reset correctly to the page in the routine WORLD if the option MAPLEV ('BOTH') was used before. All Dislin C libraries were affected. Thanks to Mark Sinclair for the hint.
  • The Perl distribution of Dislin for Windows in the file dl_10_pl.zip was created with Perl version 5.6 instead of version 5.10.1. The Perl module is now recompiled with the correct Perl version. Thanks to Dr. Jens Fiedler for the report.
  • The routine WINFNT sets now directly some TrueType fonts on X11 systems by calling X11FNT with the corresponding X11 font names. The TrueType fonts must be installed on the X11 (Linux) system. Thanks to Roland Huget's suggestion for using TrueType fonts on Linux systems.
  • The routine DISENV is added to Dislin for setting the Dislin environment within a program. Thanks to Mark Sinclair for the suggestion.

25-February-2010

A possible access violation was reported for the widget routine WGTXT and the native Fortran libraries of Dislin for Windows. The file disdll.dll is replaced in the distributions dl_10_df.zip, dl_10_hf.zip, dl_10_if.zip, dl_10_lf.zip, dl_10_pg.zip and dl_10_sf.zip. Please update your Dislin distribution if you are using Dislin widget routines and one of the distributions above. A re-linking of programs is not necessary. Thanks to Patrick W. Daly for the hint.

3-February-2010

The Dislin distributions for Compaq (dl_10_df.zip) and Intel Visual Fortran (dl_10_if.zip) are updated since a call to the routine PDFMRK caused a linking error. Thanks to Joseph K. Mulcahey for the hint. Other Dislin distributions are not affected.

19-Januar-2010

A problem with the longer version number 10.0 is corrected in the routine PAGHDR. Thanks to Te-Pu Chiang for the hint.

15-Januar-2010

  • A printed book of Dislin is now available. It can be ordered from Amazon.de, or directly from the author. The book describes the current version 10 of Dislin.

The Data Plotting Software DISLIN - Version 10

by Helmut Michels (Author)

Paperback : 320 pages
Publisher: Shaker Media GmbH; Edition 1: (Jan. 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3868585176
ISBN-13: 978-3-86858-517-9
Product Dimension: 17 x 24 cm
Price: 22,90 Euro + shipping

  • The last Dislin upgrades 9.5 A to 9.5 D are combined to the new Dislin release 10.0 without adding new features, except for the routine STMTRI that plots streamlines from triangulated data. The HTML documentation of Dislin is updated to version 10.0.

10-November-2009

The following changes are applied to the Dislin upgrade 9.5 D:

  • LICPTS is a new routine for calculating a Line Integral Convolution (LIC) image of a vector field. Some algorithm parameters can be modified with the new routine LICMOD and with the already existing routines STMOPT and STMVAL.
  • The routine TXTURE generates a texture image of random numbers that can be passed to the routine LICPTS as texture image.
  • The new routine CRVQDR plots a coloured surface from quadrangles similar to CRVTRI that plots triangles. A smooth surface can be selected with the routine SHDMOD.
  • CRVT3D plots a curve in 3-D like CURV3D, but can show different thicknesses and colours at curve segments.
  • The new routine IMGTPR defines a transparency colour for images that are plotted by routines such as WPIXLS, WPXROW and INCFIL. Pixels with the transparency colour will not be copied to the output format.
  • MRKCLR defines the colour of symbols plotted by CURVE. The option is useful if symbols and lines are plotted by CURVE. The colour defined by MRKCLR will also be displayed in legends.
  • The routines ZBFMOD and DBFMOD can disable the Z-buffer and depth sort in Dislin.
  • Version 2.0 of the GSHHS shorelines managed by Paul Wessel is now supported by Dislin.

The new features are included in the online documentation of Dislin (disman and dishlp). Some examples for LIC images are added to the Gallery.

8-October-2009

Dislin is upgraded to version 9.5 C with the following changes:

  • STREAM is a new routine for plotting streamlines of vector fields on regular grids. A set of starting points can be passed to STREAM. If no starting points are specified, the routine plots evenly-spaced streamlines through a given vector field.
  • Several streamline options such as the integration method or additional arrow symbols can be defined with the routines STMMOD, STMOPT and STMVAL.
  • STREAM3D is an analog routine to STREAM for plotting streamlines in space.
  • The routines STMPTS and STMPTS3D calculate just a streamline for a starting point and returns the streamline in an array.
  • The new routines VECMAT and VECMAT3D plot vector fields on regular grids. The vectors are displayed as arrows.
  • The 64-bit distribution of Dislin for Mac OSX / Darwin is tested successfully on Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Pre-compiled 64-bit modules for Perl 5.10, Python 2.6 and Java 1.6 are added to this distribution.
  • A reported bug in the routine SENDOK for Linux/Unix is corrected. Thanks to Jim Phelps for the hint.

The new features are included in the online documentation of Dislin (see disman and dishlp). Some examples for vector field plots are added to the Gallery.

3-September-2009

The Dislin libraries in the distribution dl_95_pf.zip for PGI Visual Fortran are recompiled because of a mistake in the compilation process. Thanks to Te-Pu Chiang for the hint.

27-August-2009

Dislin is upgraded to version 9.5 B with the following changes:

  • Hardware features are now used for thick lines enabled with LINWID and PENWID for screen and WMF output to increase the quality of plots. This behaviour can be disabled with the routine HWMODE.
  • 2-D pie charts can be rotated with the new routine PIEROT. This may solve overplotting problems with external labels if multiple pie charts are created. The distance of external labels on pie charts can be modified with the routine PIEVAL.
  • PIECBK defines a callback routine for pie charts that is called from PIEGRF before each segment. The callback routine can modify the appearance of pie charts such as suppressing or shifting single labels. PIECBK is a replacement of the old routine USRPIE that could not be used with shareable Dislin libraries.
  • The range of the possible axis scaling is enlarged for elliptical and cylindrical projections. The center of the X-axis scaling can now be anywhere between -180 and 180 degrees.
  • Shaded countries plotted with the routines SHDEUR, SHDASI, etc. are also displayed if the axis scalings are outside of the intervals (-180., 180) and (-90., 90) degrees. The colour value -1 is now accepted by these routines for using the foreground colour.
  • A call of SENDBF in ENDGRF can be suppressed with the routine BUFMOD to solve a reported problem with double buffering.
  • The polygon clipping routine POLCLP was not working correctly in the Dislin C libraries. The bug is fixed.
  • A bug in the routine SWGTBS for the keywords 'ALIGN' and 'VERIFY' is corrected.
  • Bahrain was missing in SHDASI. It can now be plotted with the index 51.
  • Labels in contour lines could be plotted outside of the axis system if a hardware font was used. This bug is fixed.

The new features are included in the online documentation of Dislin.

24-June-2009

Dislin is upgraded from version 9.5 to version 9.5 A with the following changes:

  • The shortly introduced new TeX instructions \left and \right for plotting bracket symbols in formulas use now automatically the same size as the included partial formula. The instruction \. is added for plotting only a single opening or closing bracket. Some options for changing the behaviour of bracket symbols are added to the routines TEXOPT and TEXVAL.
  • The data format of the Global Self-consistant Hierarchical High-resolution Shorelines (GSHHS) by Paul Wessel has changed. Dislin was no longer capable to plot the current distribution of the GSHHS map files. This Dislin update solves the problem. The option 'RIVERS' is added to the routine MAPLEV for displaying the WDB rivers that are included in the GSHHS distribution. The GSHHS distribution can be copied from https://ftp.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhs/.
  • The options 'DYEAR' and 'QYEAR' are added to the routine LABMOD for the keyword 'STEP' to use a label step of two and four years in date labels.
  • Vertical labels in contours can be enabled with the option LABTYP ('VERT', 'CONTUR'). The default option is LABTYP ('HORI', 'CONTUR').
  • The Dislin routine CHAWTH for changing the width of characters is also working for PostScript characters.
  • The new routine DOEVNT is included for processing events in the widget event queue. This routine should be called during time intensive calculations in widget programs for giving a user the chance to interact with the program (i.e. to abort the calculation).
  • The routine CURV3D can now plot true 3-D curves (tube segments instead of line segments) if the option SHDMOD ('3D', 'CURVE') is set before. The new routines THKC3D and MSHCRV define the thickness and the mesh resolution of 3-D curves.

The new features are included in the online documentation of Dislin.

28-May-2009

Some small changes are applied to the most Dislin distributions:

  • Smooth surfaces can be used with PostScript output. This was only possible for PDF, screen and image formats until yet.
  • The Dislin routine CRVTRI supports now the output of smooth coloured triangles to PostScript and PDF formats. Mesh grids can be enabled with the option SURMSH ('ON').
  • The TeX instruction \cdot was not working for the character encoding ISO-Latin-1. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for the hint.
  • The new TeX instructions \right and \left preceding one of the bracket symbols '[', '(', '{', ']', ')' and '}' are added to Dislin for plotting brackets in formulas. The commands \big, \Big, \bigg, \Bigg and \low preceding a bracket symbol plot manual sized bracket symbols. Thanks also to Jens for the suggestions.

5-May-2009

A few small bugs are corrected for the Dislin Windows distributions:

  • The routine SWGBUT has not set correctly the status of button widgets for Windows. Thanks to David Baxendale for the report.
  • WMF files became corrupted if the page size is greater than nearly 60 cm. The corresponding coordinates were too big for the 16-bit WMF format. Dislin switches now to a lower resolution for oversized pages. Thanks to Ian Williams for the hint.
  • Alberto Gonzalez reported that the edit mode of single table cells in table widgets could not be changed with the routine SWGTBS for the native Fortran 90/95 Windows distributions of Dislin. The bug is corrected.
  • Axis labels with the value zero could have a minus sign or an additional leading 0. Jens Bischoff has observed this strange behaviour in the double precision libraries of Dislin that are used for example by the Dislin Perl modules. Thanks to Jens for the report.

30-March-2009

Dislin version 9.5 is released with the following new features:

  • SHDNOR and SHDSOU are new routines for plotting shaded North, Central and South American countries.
  • The routines VECFLD, VECF3D and FIELD3D display vector fields with arrows. The appearance of the arrows can be modified with the routines VECCLR and VECOPT.
  • PIKE3D plots a 3-D arrow head. This routine is used in Dislin for plotting arrows in 3-D vectors (i.e. in VECF3D and VECTR3).
  • The keywords 'ISO5', 'KOI8', 'ISO7' and 'UTF8' in the routine CHACOD support additional encodings for Cyrillic, Greek and Unicode characters.
  • The utility routine UTFINT converts a UTF8 character string to Unicode numbers. INTUTF converts Unicode numbers to a UTF8 string.
  • FILOPT is a new routine that can change the syntax of plotfile names and file versions.
  • The options 'FILE' and 'APPEND' are added to the routines ERRMOD and ERRDEV for special error handlings.
  • The option 'MDELAY' is added to WINOPT for setting milliseconds as delay time in DISFIN.
  • 'END' is an additional keyword for SWGOPT for modifying the behaviour of callback routines for scale widgets.
  • The routine GWGBUT can now also request the status of push button widgets (if they are pressed or not).
  • All reported bugs are corrected.

7-November-2008

  • Support of the C/C++ interpreter Ch is added to the FreeBSD 5.x, 6.x and 7.0 distributions of Dislin.
  • A bug in the FreeBSD 7.0 distribution of Dislin is corrected. The bug may have caused a core dump for plotting to graphic windows.

5-November-2008

  • The Linux i586 distributions of Dislin for 32- and 64-bit support now the C/C++ interpreter Ch.
  • A bug for thick non-solid contour lines is corrected in the most Dislin distributions. Thanks to Andi Zuend for the hint.

31-October-2008

  • A new Windows distribution of Dislin is available for the C/C++ interpreter Ch (SoftIntegration) in the file dl_94_ch.zip.
  • A bug in the routine SWGCLR for the keyword 'FORE' is corrected in the Dislin Windows distributions. Other distributions are not affected. Thanks to Dr. Guntram Buchheim for the report.

30-October-2008

  • The routine MAPLAB was not working for the Fortran library in the Dislin distribution for VMS. The bug is corrected. Thanks again to Sam Miller for the report. Other Dislin distributions are not involved.

28-October-2008

  • A bug in the Fortran 77 code of Dislin 9.4 is corrected that may have caused unprintable PostScript files. Thanks to Samuel Miller for the hint. The Dislin distributions for VMS, Absoft Fortran on Linux and Salford and Portland Fortran on Windows are updated. Other Dislin distributions are not affected.
  • The Dislin distribution for HP-UX PA-RISC is updated to version 9.4. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for creating the Dislin libraries and utilities.

17-October-2008

  • A new Dislin distribution for Python 2.6 and Windows is added.

15-October-2008

Dislin version 9.4 is released. The following new features are added to Dislin since the last release 9.3 (April 2008):

  • The widget routine WGTBL creates a table widget.
  • SWGTBL, SWGTBF, SWGTBI and SWGTBS are new routines for setting floatingpoint, integer and character values in table widget cells.
  • The values of table cells can be requested with the routines GWGTBL, GWGTBF, GWGTBI and GWGTBS.
  • Several new options are added to the routines SWGOPT and SWGJUS for modifying the appearance of table widgets. Especially, the new option 'VERIFY' in SWGOPT can be used to restrict the set of possible input characters in text and table widgets.
  • Callback routines for table widgets are defined with the new routine SWGCB2.
  • The routine SWGRAY modifies the width of table columns in table widgets.
  • Strings in label widgets may now be changed with the routine SWGTXT.
  • Additional axis labels for azimuthal and elliptical projections can be enabled with the routine MAPLAB.
  • The new routine CSRKEY returns just a pressed keyboard character.
  • CSRREC is a new cursor routine where a user can create a rubberband around a rectangle with a mouse button. Two opposide corners of the rectangle are returned by CSRREC.
  • The routine LABDIG does now accept the value -2 for automatic calculating the number of digits after the decimal point displayed in labels.

31-July-2008

The following bugs are corrected:

  • The optional scrollbars in draw widgets were not working correctly for the Dislin Windows distributions caused by a software change in release 9.3. The bug is fixed.
  • Massimo Gaspari detected that the number of possible error bars was limited by the number 32000. This number is now unlimited.
  • Massimo reported also a rounding problem in date labels if the scaling parameters in GRAF are before the base date. Thanks to Massimo for his hints.
  • A bug in the Great Circle interpolation of Dislin is fixed. The bug appeared for longitudes greater than 360 degrees. Thanks to Sam Miller for the report.

The Dislin version number is increased to 9.3 B.

2-July-2008

A pre-compiled Dislin module for Java is added to the Dislin distribution for Mac OSX on Intel processors.

27-June-2008

The following small bugs are corrected and a few new features are added to Dislin. The version number is increased to 9.3 A.

  • The routine SWGVAL was not working in the Dislin Fortran distributions for Windows. Thanks to Charles Katholi for the hint.
  • A bug for the parameter 'PBARS' in the routine SWGOPT is corrected. The bug was only in the Fortran distributions of Dislin.
  • Rotated symbols were not shielded correctly after a call to SHIELD ('SYMBOL', 'ON')
  • User-defined line patterns set with the routine MYLINE could not be displayed in legends. The bug is fixed.
  • The new keyword 'SPANISH' is added to the list of keywords in LABMOD for plotting Spanish date labels. Thanks to Luis Solis for the suggestion.
  • The routine LABDIG does now accept the value -2 for automatic calculating the number of digits after the decimal point displayed in labels.

17-May-2008

Some reported bugs are corrected and a few new features are added to Dislin:

  • The routines SECTOR and RLSEC were not working for PDF output. Thanks for Udo Weber for the hint.
  • Chiang Ti-pu reported problems with erasing multiple windows of different sizes on Windows. The bug should be corrected.
  • Ti-pu noted also that is was not possible to define different page formats for multiple windows. The new routine PAGWIN can modify the current page format.
  • The routine CSRPOS is modified so that a pressed keyboard character is also returned in non-blocking GET mode.
  • The new routine CSRKEY returns just a pressed keyboard character.
  • CSRREC is a new cursor routine where a user can create a rubberband around a rectangle with a mouse button. Two opposide corners of the rectangle are returned by CSRREC.
  • A '%%PAGES' line is added to PostScript files for suppressing a warning given by some GhostScript versions.

The new features are described in the online help of Dislin.

30-April-2008

The price list for the commercial Dislin licenses is updated and corresponds now better to the current Euro/Dollar exchange rate. The Euro prices of Dislin are decreased while the Dollar prices are increased. The old Dollar prices are valid until 14-May-2008. The lower Euro prices are available immediately.

24-April-2008

The following small bugs are corrected:

  • The Fortran versions of the routines VTX3D, VTXC3D and VTXN3D have not correctly interpreted the character option COPT that defines the plotting mode. Thanks to Ken Darcovich for the report.
  • Ken reported also a problem with the keywort 'POLYGON' in the routines above. A triangle was missing or plotted at a wrong position. The bug happened also in the C libraries of Dislin.
  • A call to the Dislin routine ORIGIN was ignored by some elementar routines plotting 3-D figures such as SPHE3D and CYLI3D.
  • The GNU C++ compiler g++ gave a compilation error for the Dislin header file 'dislin.h'. One of the new function paramters had the restricted name 'or'. Thanks to Simon Sham for the hint.
  • Peter Sellmair reported that the routine CSRPOS doesn't longer return keyboard events for draw widgets on Windows in Dislin version 9.3. The input focus of the draw widget was lost.
  • A compatibility problem was reported for Dislin and Absoft Pro Fortran 10.1 for Windows. I have added an additional note to the README file for solving the problem. Thanks to Mark Sinclair for the report and Absoft Corporation for the support.

14-April-2008

Dislin version 9.3 is released. The following new features are added to Dislin since the last release 9.2 (October 2007):

  • The routines TPRINI and TPRFIN enable and disable transparency effects by using alpha blending. The alpha value can be defined with TPRVAL, the algorithm for alpha blending can be modified with the routine TPRMOD.
  • The routine GAXPAR calculates scaling parameters from data values that can be used in a GRAF routine.
  • The physical resolution of BMP files can be changed with the new routine BMPMOD.
  • The routine HWSCAL can change the scale operator in PostScript files.
  • The widget routine WGPBAR displays a progress bar. The value of the progress can be set with the routine SWGVAL. The appearance of progress bars can be changed with the routines SWGTYP, SWGOPT and SWGCLR.
  • GWGINT and GWGFLT are new routines for getting the values of text widgets as integers and floatingpoint numbers.
  • SWGINT and SWGFLT set the values of text widgets as integers and floatingpoint numbers.
  • LEGVAL is a new routine for modifying the symbol size in legends.
  • The routine ZBFSCL sets a scaling factor for the resolution of internal images used for smooth surfaces in PDF files.

23-January-2008

  • A bug in the routine CONSHD is corrected. CONSHD may have caused an access violation if the dimension of yray was lower than the dimension of xray. The bug was only in the C libraries of Dislin. Thanks to Kai Schmidt for the report.
  • Additional libraries disvcd.lib and disvcd_d.lib are added to the Dislin distribution for MS Visual C++. The libraries are compiled for the runtime library msvcrt.lib and can be used from MS Studio 2005 for linking Dislin programs without changing default options.

16-January-2008

The following reported bugs are corrected:

  • The device '/dev/null' as a parameter in the routine ERRFIL may have caused a program crash on Unix/Linux systems. Thanks to Dr. Gerd Baumgarten for the report.
  • Yuanhui Zhang has noted that the routine CURV3D does ignore line patterns if line and symbol mode was enabled. The automatic changing of curve attributes was also not working correctly for CURV3D. Thanks to Yuanhui for the hint.
  • The routine SCLFAC contains a bug for PostScript output in the native Fortran 90 libraries of Dislin. The scaling was done twice. Thanks to Edmond Owirodu for the report.
  • The new routine HWSCAL is added to Dislin for changing directly the scale operator in PostScript files.

10-December-2007

  • A reported problem with long directory names in the setup program of the Dislin Windows distributions is corrected. Thanks to Robert Gajdacz for the hint.

6-December-2007

  • There was still a small problem for viewing multiple page PostScript files with GV. Thanks to Petr Padrta for the report. The problem should be solved in the current Dislin distributions.
  • The maximal number of user-defined labels is increased from 20 to 50.

4-December-2007

The following reported problems are corrected and some suggested features are added to Dislin:

  • The 'Great Circle' interpolation was not working for the geographical projection 'CYLI'.
  • BeginProlog and EndProlog comments are added to PostScript files for solving viewing problems with multiple page PostScript files.
  • SCRMOD ('NOREVERS') was not working correctly for multiple page PDF files.
  • The new widget routine WGPBAR displays a progress bar. The value of the progress can be set with the routine SWGVAL. The appearance of progress bars can be changed with the routines SWGTYP, SWGOPT and SWGCLR.
  • GWGINT and GWGFLT are new routines for getting the values of text widgets as integers and floatingpoint numbers.
  • SWGINT and SWGFLT set the values of text widgets as integers and floatingpoint numbers.
  • LEGVAL is a new routine for modifying the symbol size in legends.
  • The routine ZBFSCL sets a scaling factor for the resolution of internal images used for smooth surfaces in PDF files.

The new features are described in the online documentation of Dislin available by the utility programs disman and dishlp.

8-November-2007

Some small patches are applied to the most Dislin distributions:

  • A problem with including smooth surfaces into PDF files is fixed. Thanks to James Haefner for the bug report.
  • The initialization of the Z-buffer has caused an access violation for the native Fortran 90/95 Dislin libraries on Unix systems. The bug is corrected.
  • The current colour was not reset correctly after the routine SURSHD. Thanks to Ching-Sheng Mao for the hint.
  • Gabor Peintler reported a bug in the MS-DOS distributions of Dislin for direct colour output on VGA screens. The bug is fixed.

10-October-2007

Dislin version 9.2 is released with the following changes:

  • The routines SHDASI and SHDAUS plot shaded countries of Asia and Oceania.
  • The routine WORLD can now plot additional political borders if this feature is enabled with the routine MAPOPT.
  • Great Circle interpolation for map coordinates can be selected with the option 'GREAT' in MAPMOD.
  • The length of the X-axis in map plots can be automatically adjusted to the scaling if this feature is enabled in MAPOPT.
  • The functions NXPIXL and NYPIXL calculate pixel coordinates to given Dislin plot coordinates.
  • The routine SYMB3D plots 3-D symbols where the size of symbols can be defined with HSYM3D.
  • CURV3D can now plot 2-D or 3-D symbols depending on an option in SHDMOD.
  • The routines TRIA3D, DISK3D, QUAD3D, CONE3D, CYLI3D, TUBE3D, PYRA3D and TORUS3D plot some 3-D figures and solids.
  • The routine PLAT3D plots a Platonic solid.
  • Rotation angles around the centre point and about an axis can be defined for 3-D symbols and solids with the routine ROT3D.
  • The routines VTX3D, VTXC3D and VTXN3D can plot lines, points, triangles, quadrilaterals and polygons from a set of vertices.
  • TR3SHF, TR3SCL, TR3ROT and TR3RES define 3-D base transformations for elementary 3-D plotting routines.
  • All Dislin 3-D surface routines use now backface culling for removing single polygons that are not facing the viewpoint. Backface culling can be disabled with the routine SHDMOD.
  • The routine SURVIS determines which part of a surface is plotted.
  • Material parameters and grid colours can be defined for different sides of a surface if the surface side is selected with SETFCE before MATOP3 and MSHCLR.
  • ZBFERS and ZBFRES are new routines for erasing and resetting the Z-buffer.
  • An alternate method in Dislin to the Z-buffer for hidden-surface elimination is a depth sort that can be initialized and terminated with the routines DBFINI and DBFFIN. A depth sort is useful if the output format is not a raster format, so that a Z-buffer cannot be used.
  • The routine ISOPTS caculates an isosurface of the form f(x,y,z) = constant.
  • The new routine POLCLP clips a polygon against a rectangle.
  • The keyword 'SCROLL' is added to SWGOPT for modifying the use of callback routines in scroll widgets.

28-September-2007

Die Dislin distributions for Windows and the Dislin manuals are already updated to version 9.2, which will be released in the next weeks.

5-September-2007

Some small reported bugs are corrected for the most Dislin distributions:

  • The size of draw widgets and labeled text widgets was not correct if horizontal parent widgets were used. Thanks to Guntram Buchheim for the reports.
  • The BARPOS routine was not working in the C libraries of Dislin. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for the hint.
  • Shaded contours plotted with CONSHD could not be projected into a 3-D plane. Thanks to Werner Willems for the report.

29-Juli-2007

  • First DISLIN distributions for Windows 64-bit are available for MS Visual C++ and Intel and Portland Group compilers.

27-Juli-2007

  • Clive Page has written a nice tutorial for programming GUI applications in Fortran with DISLIN widget routines. The tutorial is available from http://www.star.le.ac.uk/~cgp/dislinGUI. Thanks to Clive for his work.

12-Juli-2007

  • A reported bug for the routine GWGBOX and the Dislin Windows distributions is corrected. Thanks to Clive Page for the hint.

31-March-2007

Some small reported bugs are corrected for the most DISLIN distributions:

  • A bug for the shading of Antarctica in Mercator projection is fixed.
  • If a plotfile cannot be created by DISLIN, the program is now terminated instead of just giving a warning. This avoids the crashing of programs.
  • The new keyword 'GREAT' is added to MAPMOD for enabling Great Circle interpolation for map coordinates. Thanks to Sam Miller for the suggestion and some other hints.
  • A bug in GRIDMP and azimuthal projections is corrected. One gridline was plotted twice so that a dotted or dashed line style was appearing as nearly solid.
  • The appearance of geographical labels > 180 or < -180 is modified. For example, the longitude value 200 is now displayed as 20 W instead of 200 E.

15-March-2007

      The i386 and libc6 distributions of DISLIN for Linux are re-packaged. The support for the Intel, Lahey, NAG and Portland compilers are now included in the main package while the extra packages for this compilers are removed. A list with the most popular

Linux distributions

    for Intel x86 systems shows which DISLIN distribution can be used.

14-February-2007

  • There was still a problem with Greek PostScript characters in TeX formulas for PDF and PostScript output. The bug is corrected. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for the example code.
  • Draw widgets can now have scrollbars if the routine SWGTYP is called before WGDRAW with the parameters 'SCROLL' and 'DRAW'. The size of the graphics can be defined with the routine WINSIZ before SETXID. Thanks to Stan Geller for the suggestion.

1-February-2007

  • The Dislin distribution for MinGW and Windows supports also the NAGWare f95 compiler. Since NAGWare f95 uses gcc/MinGW on Windows, the Dislin library for MinGW is full compatible to NAGWare f95.
  • A new Dislin distribution for Portland Visual Fortran 6.2 is available in the file dl_91_pf.zip. It was reported that the current Dislin distribution for Portland Group compilers is not compatible to Portland Visual Fortran 6.2. The new distribution contains the Dislin C library with wrapper routines for Portland Visual Fortran and is compiled with MS Visual C/C++.
  • A bug in the clipping algorithm for the routine POLAR is corrected. Thanks to Felix Schmalz for the hint.
  • Vincent Rotival has reported problems with the widget routines SWGSCL and WGDLIS on a X11 system. The bugs are corrected. Thanks to Vincent for the reports.
  • A bug in the fractions of TeX formulas is corrected. The character height was wrong in fractions after plotting some special symbols. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for the hint.

17-January-2007

  • Doug Currie has written an extension of Dislin for the programming language Lua. The extension is available from the site http://luaforge.net/projects/ldislin. Thanks to Doug for his work.
  • It was reported that the current Dislin distribution for Absoft Pro Fortran/Windows is not compatible to the current version 10 of Absoft Pro Fortran. Therefore, a new Dislin distribution for Absoft Pro Fortran v10 and Windows is packaged in the file dl_91_a2.zip. The distribution contains the Dislin libraries for MS Visual C++ with wrapper routines for Fortran, since Absoft Pro Fortran is link-compatible with MS C/C++.

15-January-2007

A new Dislin distribution for the Digital Mars C/C++ compiler and Windows is available in the file
dl_91_dm.zip.

9-January-2007

Additional libraries are included in the Dislin distribution for Intel Visual Fortran and Windows for supporting MS Visual Studio 2005.

15-December-2006

Happy Birthday Dislin. Dislin is now 20 years old. The first version 1.0 was released in December 1986. Here is a short summary of all Dislin releases.

1-December-2006

A bug in the widget routine swgopt is corrected in the Dislin C libraries for Windows. Thanks to Ching-Sheng Mao for the report. Other Dislin distributions are not affected.

25-November-2006

A bug in setxid introduced with version 9.1 is corrected in the Dislin distributions for Windows. The bug caused an access violation. Thanks to Prof. Peter Baumbach for the hint. Other Dislin distributions are not affected.

15-November-2006

Dislin version 9.1 is released with the following changes:

  • The C libraries in Dislin and wrapper libraries that are based on the C libraries should now be thread-safe. The new routines THRINI and THRFIN allow thread-programming. A lot of internal changes were necessary to make the global variables in Dislin thread-safe.
  • The interfaces to Dislin routines are changed for native Fortran 90 libraries of Dislin. Arrays are now declared as explicit-shape instead of assumed-shape. All Fortran 90 libraries of Dislin 9.1 (native or wrapper) use now the same interfaces. A missing 'USE DISLIN' statement should no longer cause a protection fault for native Fortran 90 libraries.
  • A native Fortran 90 library of Dislin for Intel Visual Fortran is available in the distribution dl_91_if.zip. The old distribution of dl_91_if.zip with C libraries for Intel C and Fortran is renamed to dl_91_ic.zip.
  • Separate Dislin distributions are available for Python 2.4 and 2.5 on Windows systems.
  • The number of Dislin libraries is reduced in several distributions. For example, gcc, g77 and g95 use now the same link library, and the Fortran 77 and Fortran 90 libraries of Dislin are identical on most Unix systems.
  • Symbols and frames are plotted directly in device space for screen and image output to avoid rounding problems (already 9.0 A).
  • The keywords 'ISO3' and 'TURKISH' are added to the routines CHACOD and EUSHFT for plotting ISO-Latin-3 and Turkish characters. The characters are available for the DISLIN vector font COMPLX and for bitmap fonts defined with BMPFNT (already 9.0 A).
  • TEXVAL is a new routine for modifying the character height of indices and exponents in TeX formulas (already 9.0 A).
  • The number of possible widgets created with DISLIN is now unlimited. There was a limit of 200 widgets before the change (already 9.0 A).

4-July-2006

Two reported bugs in Dislin are corrected:

  • Ahron Fegelman reported still a problem with the routine ORIGIN if PAGMOD ('BOTTOM') is used before. The problem is solved.
  • A bug is corrected in the Fortran 90 library of Dislin for importing GIF files into a graphics with the routine INCFIL.

23-June-2006

There was a reported bug for the position of symbols in the new version 9.0 A if the routine ORIGIN is called before. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for the hint. All DISLIN distributions are corrected. Please update your DISLIN distribution if you have downloaded version 9.0 A in the last days. Sorry.

15-June-2006

The most Dislin distributions are upgraded to version 9.0 A (patch level 1) with the following changes:

  • Symbols and frames are plotted directly in device space for screen and image output to avoid rounding problems.
  • The keywords 'ISO3' and 'TURKISH' are added to the routines CHACOD and EUSHFT for plotting ISO-Latin-3 and Turkish characters. The characters are available for the DISLIN vector font COMPLX and for bitmap fonts defined with BMPFNT.
  • TEXVAL is a new routine for modifying the character height of indices and exponents in TeX formulas.
  • A bug for the size of PostScript characters in PostScript files is corrected. PostScript characters in PostScript files are now plotted a little bit smaller as before and have the same exact character height as in PDF files.
  • The number of possible widgets created with DISLIN is now unlimited. There was a limit of 200 widgets before the change.
  • The y-coordinate in ORIGIN was not interpreted relative to the lower left corner of the page if PAGORG ('BOTTOM') was called. The bug is corrected.
  • The option 'OK' is added to the routine SGWOPT for modifying the behaviour of the CLOSE button/entry in main widgets.
  • The routine NEWMIX was not available in the Fortran 90 library of DISLIN for Intel Visual Fortran.
  • A reported bug in the DISLIN interpreter DISGCL for using hexadecimal numbers of the form 0xE... is corrected.

12-June-2006

MD5 sums of all DISLIN distributions are included in the download directories.

10-April-2006

  • Version 10 of the Absoft Fortran compiler for Linux is now supported by DISLIN. There are new DISLIN distributions for Absoft Fortran v10 for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux systems. Many thanks to Absoft Corporation for providing the new compiler versions for compiling DISLIN.

31-March-2006

  • A new DISLIN distribution for Darwin on Intel Macs is available in the file dislin-9.0.darwin.intel.tar.gz. The distribution supports programming with gcc, g77, g95, Intel icc and ifort. Thanks to Eric Brown for providing a guest account on an Intel iMac for compiling DISLIN.

28-February-2006

  • A PowerPoint presentation of DISLIN is available in the file dislin.ppt.

15-February-2006

  • The HTML documentation of DISLIN is revised. The layout of the DISLIN HTML manual is changed and several references are added.

17-Januar-2006

The most DISLIN distributions were updated with the following changes:

  • A problem in disgcl with string elements in expressions was corrected. The bug was reported by Erik Desonville.
  • Some line attributes were not reset in PDF files if a new page was created with the routine NEWPAG. Thanks to Jens Bischoff for the hint.
  • A bug in the justification of labels on push button widgets was corrected. The bug was reported by Juan Hernandez.
  • Dr. Johannes Sander has reported a bug for list widgets with the attribute 'invisible'. The problem was solved.
  • Dr. Sander suggested also an new option for suppressing the horizontal scrollbar in list widgets. This can be done with the new keyword 'VSCROLL' in SWGTYP.
  • The new keyword 'BILEVEL' was added to the routine IMGFMT for creating bilevel TIFF files. The feature was suggested by Regis Legoff.
  • The behaviour of callback routines for text widgets can be modified with the routine SWGOPT (copt, 'CALLBACK') where copt can have the values 'RETURN', 'CHANGE' and 'BOTH'. For 'RETURN', the callback routine is only called if a return is given in the text field, for 'CHANGE, the callback routine is called for each change in the text field. The default value is 'RETURN'. The change was a wish of Juan Hernandez since the behaviour of callback routines for text widgets was modified in the DISLIN 9.0 distributions for Windows.

9-December-2005

  • A DISLIN distribution for Solaris 10 on x86 is available.

11-November-2005

DISLIN version 9.0 is released with the following changes:

  • The license check is removed from DISLIN. All DISLIN distributions are now free for non-commercial use. Licenses are still available for selling programs linked with DISLIN, or for using DISLIN in an environment related to business.
  • The DISLIN source code is included in the CD-ROM that is distributed with a DISLIN license. Script files for recompiling DISLIN are included in the source code.
  • The routine IMGCLP defines a clipping region for the routines RTIFF, RGIF, RPNG, RPPM and RBMP for copying the graphics window to an output file. An octree colour quantization is now used for the routines above if a true colour window is copied to an 8-bit output file.
  • The routine PSMODE enables Greek and Italic PostScript characters in Postscript fonts. By default, DISLIN vector characters are used for Greek and Italic characters in PostScript fonts.
  • Static double precision libraries are added to the most DISLIN distributions for Unix and Linux.
  • GNU Fortran is supported by DISLIN for Windows, Linux 32 bit and Linux 64 bit.
  • A new DISLIN distribution for FreeBSD 6.0 is available.

24-August-2005

DISLIN version 8.4 is released with the following new features:

  • Additional true colour features are added to DISLIN. A colour value in DISLIN maybe now an entry of the current colour table, or an explicit RGB value of the form 01bbggrr. The new function INTRGB creates an explicit RGB value from RGB coordinates.
  • The lighting in DISLIN has been changed. Material and lighting parameters can be defined for each RGB coordinate with the new routines MATOP3 and LITOP3. The routine GETLIT returns now an explicit RGB value instead of a palette entry.
  • All reported bugs are corrected.

4-May-2005

  • The DISLIN distribution for Linux on AMD64 supports now also the Portland Group compilers pgf77 and pgf90, and Intel's icc and ifort.

24-March-2005

  • The DISLIN distribution for Darwin/Mac OSX supports now the IBM Fortran compilers xlf and xlf90.

5-March-2005

  • The DISLIN distribution for Linux on AMD64 supports now also the GNU G95 compiler.

25-February-2005

  • A new DISLIN distribution for Linux on AMD64 is available.

1-February-2005

DISLIN version 8.3 is released with the following new features:

  • The GIF format is supported by DISLIN. GIF files can be created with the keyword 'GIF' in METAFL, or can be included into a graphics with the routine INCFIL. The new routine RGIF copies an image from the screen to a GIF file.
  • The routine GIFMOD enables transparency for GIF files.
  • Bookmarks for PDF files can be defined with the routine PDFMRK.
  • The function INDRGB returns a colour index for RGB coordinates.
  • The new routine GETHNM returns the character height used for axis titles.
  • SHDAFR plots shaded African countries.
  • The routine CSRPOS sets and returns the cursor position in the graphics window together with a character key that is pressed by a user. This routine can be used for cursor controls.
  • The routine SETCSR sets the cursor type of the graphics window.
  • The routine SWGFOC sets the keyboard focus to a specified widget.
  • All reported DISLIN bugs are corrected.

1-December-2004

  • The new Python version 2.4 for Windows is supported by DISLIN. The corresponding distribution is available in the file dl_82_py.zip

24-November-2004

  • A DISLIN distribution for the GNU compiler G95 on Windows is available in the file dl_82_g9.zip

03-November-2004

  • The DISLIN home page is re-designed in the style of the web site of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.

27-July-2004

  • The DISLIN PDF manual is reproduced. It contains now links from the contents entries to their sections so that a reader can navigate through the manual.

19-July-2004

  • The most of the DISLIN distributions are upgraded from version 8.2 to version 8.2 A. Export and import of GIF files is now supported by version 8.2 A.

15-July-2004

  • The Open Watcom compilers wcl and wfl for C and Fortran 77 are now supported by DISLIN. A corresponding DISLIN distribution for Windows is available in the file dl_82_wf.zip

1-July-2004

  • The 'Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie' is renamed to 'Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung' (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research).

23-February-2004

  • A DISLIN distribution for the GNU compiler G95 on Linux is available.

15-February-2004

DISLIN version 8.2 is released with the following new features:

  • The DISLIN distributions contain additional double precision libraries for passing 64 bit real parameters to DISLIN routines.

  • Some bitmap fonts are included in DISLIN that can be loaded with the routine BMPFNT for screen output and bitmap file formats. Bitmap fonts are added to increase the quality of directly created raster files such as TIFF and PNG files.

  • The new widget routine WGSTXT displays text in a scrolled widget. It is designed for displaying test listings.

  • The creation of popup submenus is now possible with the widget routines WGPOP and WGAPP.

  • Multiple external windows can be defined with the routine SETXID. Before version 8.2, only one external window was possible.

  • TRIFLL is a new and fast routine for plotting filled triangles.

  • The routine CSRTYP modifies the cursor type used by the DISLIN cursor routines.

  • ISO-Latin-2 characters are added to the DISLIN vector font COMPLX. They are also included in the DISLIN bitmap fonts loaded by BMPFNT. The new keyword 'ISO2' can be used with the routine CHACOD for enabling ISO-Latin-2 coding.

  • All reported DISLIN bugs are corrected.

25-November-2003

  • The DISLIN distributions for Windows are upgraded from version 8.1 to version 8.1 A. Some minor bugs are corrected and the most distributions contain now additional double precision libraries for passing 64 bit real parameters to DISLIN routines. Other DISLIN distributions will be upgraded in the next time.

15-October-2003

  • ActiveState Perl 5.8.0 for Windows is now supported by DISLIN.

5-October-2003

  • A DISLIN distribution for FreeBSD 5.1 is available.

22-August-2003

  • A DISLIN distribution for Python 2.3 and Windows is available.

7-May-2003

DISLIN version 8.1 is released with the following new features:

  • The routine ADDLAB plots additional axis labels.

  • The appearance of labels on the 3-D box can be modified with the routine LABL3D. Using of hardware characters for the labels is supported by the most modes.

  • The new routine BARS3D plots 3-D bars.

  • The routine POLMOD modifies the direction and position of polar labels.

  • Transparency in PNG files can be enabled with the routine PNGMOD.

  • TRIPTS generates contour lines from triangulated data without plotting them (analog to CONPTS).

  • The algorithm for plotting continuous contour lines from triangulated data in CONTRI is replaced by a more stable algorithm.

  • The calculation of colour values for filled contours plotted with CONSHD and CONFLL can me modified with additional options in SHDMOD.

28-February-2003

  • A new DISLIN distribution for .NET is available. DISLIN can now be used from the .NET compilers C#, Visual C++ .NET and Visual Basic .NET, and may be from other .NET compilers.

  • A new DISLIN distribution for Darwin on PowerMacs is available. It supports programming with gcc, g77, Perl and Python.

20-February-2003

  • The DISLIN distributions for SGI IRIX 32 and 64 bit are updated to the current DISLIN version 8.0 B.

23-Januar-2003

DISLIN is upgraded from version 8.0 A to version 8.0 B

  • Two reported bugs for importing BMP files into PostScript and for the use of the routine NOBGD in reverse screen mode are corrected.

  • DISLIN supports now the Scalable Graphics Format as output format if the keyword 'SVG' is passed to the routine METAFL.

  • The Fortran 90 distributions of DISLIN that use wrapper routines for Fortran 90 and the DISLIN C library (nearly all of Fortran 90 distributions of DISLIN for Linux) contain now a module file with explicit-shape interfaces for arrays instead of assumed-shape interfaces to avoid problems with non-contiguous arrays. Other DISLIN distributions with native Fortran 90 libraries use furthermore assumed-shape interfaces.

14-Januar-2003

  • A new DISLIN distribution for Linux HP PA-RISC is available.

07-Januar-2003

  • A new DISLIN distribution for Linux PPC is available.

12-December-2002

DISLIN is upgraded from version 8.0 to version 8.0 A with corrected bugs and some new features:

  • The algorithm in the routine CONTRI is modified so that plotting of contour labels is now supported.

  • The new routine TRFMAT interpolates a matrix to a matrix with a higher resolution. The new matrix can then be used for plotting smoother surfaces and contours.

  • The routine TIFMOD can modify the physical resolution of TIFF files.

  • The Java class 'Dislin' is now included in the Java package 'de.dislin' to allow the use of DISLIN methods from other Java packages without naming conflicts. The statement 'import de.dislin.*;' must be added to all Java applications that call DISLIN routines.

The new routines are described in the online help of DISLIN.

25-September-2002

DISLIN version 8.0 is released with the following new features:

  • The routine POLAR plots a polar axis system and defines a polar scaling. Polar coordinates can be plotted directly with CURVE.

  • User-defined symbols can be defined with the routine MYSYMB. Two additional symbols are added to the pre-defined symbol list.

  • The page origin can be set to the lower or upper left corner with the routine PAGORG.

  • The routine UNITS selects between different plot units such as cm/100 and inch/100.

  • The new routine ERRMOD modifies the printing of error messages in DISLIN and can disable the output of the protocol in DISFIN.

  • Additional US paper sizes are added to the routine SETPAG that selects a pre-defined page size.

  • SHDUSA is a new routine that plots shaded USA states. The map coordinates for shaded European countries are updated.

  • The routine MAPFIL defines an external map file that can have the formats GSHHS and Mapgen.

  • Triangles plotted by the routine CRVTRI can have interpolated colours if SHDMOD ('SMOOTH', SURFACE) is used before.

  • Widget colours can be defined with the routine SWGCLR.

05-March-2002

  • A new DISLIN distribution for ActiveState Perl 5.6.1 is available.

14-February-2002

  • The complete set of DISLIN distributions and manuals can be downloaded as a CD-ROM image file.
  • An extension module for the programming language Python is added to the DISLIN distribution for Cygwin/Windows 9x/NT/2000. The module is created with Python 2.2 and Cygwin 1.3.9-1.

13-February-2002

  • A new DISLIN distribution for the Intel Linux compilers ifc and icc is available.

06-February-2002

DISLIN version 7.6 is released with the following new features:

  • General BMP (Windows Bitmap) files can be included into a DISLIN graphics with the routine INCFIL. The output format must be a raster, PostScript or PDF format.

  • The keywords 'PS', 'EPS' and 'BMP' are added to the list of output formats that can be defined with the routine METAFL. 'PS' defines a PostScript format with a white background, 'EPS' an Encapsulated PostScript format and BMP a Windows Bitmap format.

  • The routine RBMP copies an image from memory to a Windows Bitmap file.

  • Graphical output to a PDF format can be stored in memory instead of a file, and then be copied to a user buffer with the routine PDFBUF. This is sometimes useful for Web programming.

  • The PNG, TIFF and BMP files created by DISLIN can now contain palette entries or RGB colour values. The corresponding mode can be defined with the routine IMGFMT. Palette formats are shorter and faster to calculate while RGB formats can store more than 256 colours.

  • The elementary image routines WPIXLS, RPIXLS, WPXROW and RPXROW can now work in palette and RGB mode. The mode can be set with the routine IMGMOD. Elementary image routines can also be used for PostScript and PDF output.

  • The format of WMF files can be modified with the routine WMFMOD. Standard WMF files or Aldus Placeable WMF files are possible.

  • The routine CHACOD selects between the standard DISLIN and the ISO-Latin-1 coding of characters.

  • The routine CHNBAR modifies colours and shading patterns for single bars plotted with the routine BARS.

  • The colour of frames plotted around axis systems, legends, etc, can be defined with the routine FRMCLR.

  • The new routines WINDBR and RLWIND plot wind speed symbols.

  • User-defined geographical projections can be enabled with the keyword 'MYPR' in the routine PROJCT. A user-defined callback routine for the coordinate conversion can be defined with the routine SETCBK.

  • The routine CONFLL plots filled contours from triangulated data that can be generated with the routine TRIANG.

  • A runtime license is no longer needed for executing DISLIN programs on other machines where DISLIN is not installed.

24-August-2001

  • A new DISLIN distribution for Windows 9x/NT/2000 and the Portland Group compilers pgf77 and pgf90 is available in the file dl_75_pg.zip

22-Mai-2001

DISLIN version 7.5 is released with the following new features:

  • PDF files can be created by DISLIN with the keyword 'PDF' in the routine METAFL. DISLIN supports compressed and non compressed PDF files. The new DISLIN routine PDFMOD selects the compression mode. PostScript fonts can be used for PDF files in the same way as for PostScript files.

  • The routine TRIANG calculates the Delaunay triangulation of an arbitrary collection of points in the plane. The Delaunay triangulation can directly be used to display surfaces and contours of irregularily distributed data points. The corresponding routines are CRVTRI, SURTRI and CONTRI.

  • The routine CICR3P calculates circles specified by three points.

  • The keyword 'DELAY' is added to the keyword list of the routine WINMOD for blocking the graphics window in DISFIN for a short time. The delay time can be modified with the routine WINOPT.

  • Hardware fonts for widgets can be defined with the new routine SWGFNT (CFONT, NSIZE) where CFONT can contain a Windows or X11 font. NSIZE specifies the font size in points.

  • The routine SWGSTP (STEP) defines a step value for scale widgets. Callback routines are now possible for scale widgets.

  • The colours of shaded contour lines can be defined directly with the routine CONCLR.

  • A temperature colour table is added to the list of colour tables. It can be defined with the parameter 'TEMP' in the routine SETVLT.

  • The possible length of strings in the routines NAME and TITLIN is increased from 60 to 132 characters.

10-November-2000

DISLIN version 7.4 is released with the following new features:

  • TeX instructions for mathematical formulas can be used in all text plotting routines if TeX mode is enabled with the routine TEXMOD. The routine TEXOPT sets additional parameters for TeX mode.

  • The keyword 'PPM' can be used in METAFL for creating PPM files. The PPM (Portable Pixmap) format is added to DISLIN for creating MPEG movies with the third party program mpeg_encode.

  • The routine SURISO plots isosurfaces of the form f(x,y,z) = constant. The algorithm used in SURISO is based on the Marching Cubes method. Flat or smooth shading can be used with SURISO and lighting may be enabled.

  • Lighting can be enabled for shaded surfaces with the routine LIGHT. The routines LITPOS, LITMOD, LITOPT and MATOPT modify lighting parameters. The routine GETLIT calculates colour values for given points and corresponding normals.

  • All shaded surfaces can have additional mesh lines if mesh lines are enabled with the routine SURMSH. With the keyword 'ONLY' in SURMSH, the shading of surfaces is suppressed and only mesh lines are plotted. Especially, the routine SURSHD can be used instead of SURFCE for plotting mesh grids with an alternate hidden-line algorithm.

  • The routine SPHE3D plots a sphere where lighting can be enabled.

  • The keyword 'DMONTH' is added to the routines TICMOD and LABMOD for plotting date ticks and labels for every second month. The keyword 'TINY' is added to LABMOD for plotting only the first character of month labels.

  • The routine GETSCR returns the screen size in pixels.

  • The routine GETDSP returns now the values 'XWIN', 'WIND' and 'NONE' for X11, Windows and other displays.

  • The items of list widgets can be modified with the new keyword 'LIST' in SWGATT.