Re: How to print graphs in reports?

onlinedbc@cix.compulink.co.uk ("Malcolm Weallans") wrote in reply to Paul: >I wouldn't even think about doing this in 4GL or SQL reports. I would, Malcom. As a matter of fact, I have!! Many moons ago, long before HTML and the World-Wide-Waste-Of-Wesources, Unix systems had a graphics package called "pic". This was an add-on to troff/nroff/mm, and it used the same sort of plaintext (ASCII) commands as troff/nroff/mm. Pic (and the others) had postscript drivers long before any silly little toys like PCs were even sold! Bettery yet, they had a wide array of printers that they could print on, due to the natural support for the strange and unusual built-in or added onto Unix. (Anyone remember the APS-5 Phototypesetter? How about Compugraphic Typesetters?). Now, if we wanted a graph, we would write a report that would output the data as parameters to the proper pic commands to produce the (for example bar) graph. This was NOT easy, but it looked great. One can come close to this today if one uses the DEC VT-100 (ANSI) extended line drawing set. Yes, one CAN do onscreen graphics (primitive, but better than nothing) with plain old Informix 4GL If anyone wants any detailed questions answered about this, e-mail me. [tactical assault weed-eater used to remove Malcom's suggestion about using spreadsheets, even though Malcom will get pretty >>color<< results with half the effort...] >> A friend of mine wants to know how he might be able to print real >> graphs in 4GL (or maybe ACE) reports. That is, his database is full of >> numericalengineering data, and he'd like to be able to plot graphs in >> his reportsto display those data. >> Is there any way to do this? Obviously one can plot "ascii graphs" >> like this... [tacky "ascii graph" snipped by good-taste dameon] >> but I am pretty sure that he needs better resolution than this. Is >> it feasible to have the report output be a postscript file? I imagine >> this would mean figuring out all the control characters/commands in >> postscriptand having the report print them all out. >> I feel that many many people must have needed to do things like this >> in the past, and I wonder how they did it? Thanks in advance for any hints >> ... >> > Paul Make peace with your Enemy. With whom ELSE can you make peace? james fischer jfischer@supercollider.com The Information Supercollider Split infinitives, not atoms!