CompuServe Thread

#DrawPerfect Wishlist

2 messages in this thread
#174705From: Jerry LeeOct 1, 1989 1:16 PM
#DrawPerfect Wishlist — declared parent_msg_num=(none), resolved parent_id points to #(none)
Since WPC has announce DrawPerfect I thought it might be interesting for those of us who have used other drawing and charting programs to comment about what we like and dislike about other such programs and our wishlist for DrawPerfect. If this thread were then sent on to the appropriate programmers by someone at WPC this might at least provide some ideas for the next release and at best allow some useful (if minor) changes to be made in this release. To start: Harvard Graphics: Good text chart support but drawing support is abysmal. At minimum a program with drawing capabilities should stick with the Apple/Windows/GEM/PCPaintbrush standard of handles (usually eight, one per corner and per side) on a selected graphics objects that allow them to be stretched or shrunk with a mouse in horizontal or vertical directions. Can't support import of CGM files larger than 64K. Alignment of objects is difficult. GEM/Chart: No scatterplots. Scatterplots are absolutely essential to scientific charting. VPGraphics: No good way to import or export a graph to or from other software. Good alignment capabilities. Can align selected objects centered, along a horizontal or vertical line, and group them. Then different groups can be aligned without messing up alignment within an already grouped group. But does not provide precise information about location of an object on the page (other than WYSIWYG). Almost all charting packages: No support for error bars (necessary for many scientific charts). No support of EMS (which means moderately complex drawings from other packages can't be imported). (Continued)
#174706From: Jerry LeeOct 1, 1989 1:21 PM
#174705-DrawPerfect Wishlist — declared parent_msg_num=174705, resolved parent_id points to #174705
Wishlist: All of the above to be taken care of in DrawPerfect. Far-out wish list: Support for allowing one variable in a scatterplot to control the size of the dots in the scatterplot and for dot plots. I hope the designers of DrawPerfect have read or will read the following: Cleveland, W.S. (1984). Graphs in scientific publications. _The American Statistician_, _38_, 261-269. Cleveland, W.S. (1984). Graphical methods for data presentation: Full scale breaks, dot charts, and multibased logging. _The American Statistician_, _38_, 270-280. Cleveland, W.S. and McGill, R. (1985). The many faces of a scatterplot. _Journal of the American Statistical Association_, _79_, 807-822. Despite being in statistical journals these articles are quite readable even for individuals without statistical expertise and provide many useful ideas for graphing.