[Tutor] Text Scatter Plots?

[Alan Gauld]

"Wayne Watson" <sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net> wrote

> Before GUIs, crude scatter plots and histograms on TTYs 
> and IBM electronic typewriters were used with only the 
> symbols on the keyboard. Some were pretty decent and 
> effective. 

Basioc charts can be done that way but usually they are 
just produceed by print statements with no special charting 
or plotting software. The earliest plotting software that I'm 
aware of all used bitmap imaging to the dot matrix printers 
of the time

> I don't really want to dabble with graphics at this point

The point of the graphics libraries like gnuplot is that they 
make it easier to produce real graphics than it is to try fancy 
printing techniques.

> I don't want to get into all the finery of using GUIs. 

The plotting libraries can usually throw up a window for you.
It won't be a full GUI application just a floating window in 
screen with a graph drawn in it. Check out the screenshots.
Alternatively they can save the image to a file which you 
can display in any graopghics program or web browser 
of your choice.

> However, it seems as though there ought to be some 
> really simple set up to just produce a scatter plot. 
> Maybe I'm overestimating the difficulty. 

One way to find out would be to try writing one yourself.
You could then make it available to the community.
Sounds like a useful project...

-- 
Alan Gauld
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld