Re: can mathematica do this, please answer
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg4218] Re: can mathematica do this, please answer
- From: wagner at motel6.cs.colorado.edu (Dave Wagner)
- Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 03:26:20 -0400
- Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
In article <4p35oh$n9o at dragonfly.wolfram.com>,
Gunnar Larsen <gunnarl at interlink.no> wrote:
>
>I want to read in an ascii file containing data
>and plot each value in a sequence, generating an animated
>graph. Each picture should be saved as a bitmap, (numbered
>graf0000.bmp, graf0001.bmp.....)
>This is going to be laid out on video.
>The bitmap saving must be automatic because it is a huge amount
>of data dispalyed.
There is a way to do this using version 3.0 of Mathematica.
Here is an example from my forthcoming book, "Power Programming
with Mathematica: The Kernel", which is due out in about a month -
about the same time that version 3.0 is estimated to be released.
(What a coincidence :-) )
--- begin excerpt ---
12.3.3 Display
--------------
Display[s, g] writes the Mathematica graphics object g to the stream s in
PostScript format. If s refers to a notebook window, the graphic is rendered in
the notebook. In general, however, you can use Display to write the PostScript
to any stream, such as a file or pipe.
...
When you create a Mathematica graphic using any of the plotting commands, the
return value from the function is a graphics object. The picture that you see on
your screen is actually a side effect that is caused by passing the graphics
object to the function specified by the DisplayFunction option.
Options[Plot, DisplayFunction]
{DisplayFunction :> $DisplayFunction}
$DisplayFunction
Display[$Display, #1] &
The system variable $Display contains a channel (a stream or list of streams) to
which the PostScript form of graphics objects should be written. The notebook
front end initializes $Display to "stdout". Thus, in a roundabout way, the
default value of the DisplayFunction option is Display["stdout", #]&.
...
In version 3.0, Display takes an optional third argument that specifies a format
for the graphics output. "MPS" (Mathematica PostScript) is the default, but
other possible values include "EPS" (encapsulated PostScript), "GIF", "TIFF",
"XBitmap" (X-Windows), "MetaFile" (Microsoft Windows), and "PICT" (MacOS). (See
the entry for Display in [Wolfram 96] $A.10 for a complete list of supported
formats.) So, for example, if you want to write a GIF version of every graphic
in a Mathematica session to a separate file, as well as seeing each graphic on
the screen, you could do something like the following:
n = 1;
$DisplayFunction = Function[g,
Display[$Display, g];
Display["GIFfile"<>ToString[n++], g, "GIF"]]
--- end of excerpt ---
Power Programming with Mathematica: The Kernel
Copyright 1996 McGraw-Hill
For more information: http://www.princon.com/dbwagner/PPK/description.html
Dave Wagner
Principia Consulting
(303) 786-8371
dbwagner at princon.com
http://www.princon.com/princon
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