Lars writes:

> Thanks Jim for your post!
>  Lars and I discussed a while ago how numbers on MPE (and Unix) could be
>  converted into a chart for web graphics (e.g. performance data) and you
> pointed now to Wirt!
>  Wirt, could you please send more information on the tool mentioned ?

Let me apologize for being so long getting back to you, but I've just
returned to my office. First, let me give you the bad news: We don't sell
QueryCalc outside of North America. A report writer is an extremely high
support item, and we found that we were simply not capable of supporting our
European customers in the manner that we wanted to. Because of that, we
decided ten years ago that it was basically unethical of us to continue to
sell QueryCalc outside of the geographical range that we could readily
support.

But the good news is much better. I've just spent the last three hours
putting together a graphic report using QCTerm that is driven wholly from the
HP3000. My original intentions were to put together a set of about five
different graph types (bar, line, scatter chart, pie, presentation graphic,
etc.), but I've only had time enough to put this one simple bar chart
together so far.

Because I'm teaching a class for the next four days, I won't have any
additional time to devote to this task for a while, but I will finish the
suite of graphs sometime next week. In the interim, if you'd like to look at
the one bar chart, please insure that you are on the most recent version of
QCTerm (version 0.86). If not, please go to:

     http://aics-research.com/qcterm

and download (or install for the first time) the latest version. Once you've
done that, telnet into 209.181.217.113 and signon as:

     :hello yourname,demo.qcterm

and type:

     :basic
     >run graphs

While this is just a demonstration, with a bit of imagination, you can see
the possibilities of creating your own "graphics package" without the use of
a graphics package at all. Graphics isn't nearly as complicated as people
make it out to be, especially if you break it out into its constituent
pieces.

One person wrote us a few days ago and said that he looked at similar
examples that I put up and asked, "What's all this noise about the code being
in BASIC? I looked at the code and it's just a bunch of PRINT statements."

That's absolutely true. And that's why we're totally agnostic about which
language you use on the HP3000. Your language could be something wholly avant
garde, such as Java or C++, or truly exotic such as APL or PL/1, or something
wholly prosaic such as BASIC, FORTRAN or COBOL. Choose whatever language
you're comfortable with.

In the end, to drive QCTerm's van Gogh graphics mode, all you're going to
need is a language that has PRINT/WRITE/DISPLAY statements in it, coupled
with some IF's and database calling procedures. If you want to see the code
for this example, please type (while you're in BASIC):

     >get graphs
     >list

If you don't find this particular graph attractive, it's important to
remember that it's just light and shadow. It can look like anything that you
pretty much want it to.

As soon as I get the time, I'll create the remaining graphic examples. But
the good news is that doing it this way certainly doesn't cost much. QCTerm
is free. The only cost lies in developing your code, which as I hope to
demonstrate, doesn't really take all that long to do -- and it certainly
gives you maximum flexibility to do whatever you think might be worthwhile
doing.

Wirt Atmar