Apple

So what's wrong with digging out the old PET 8032 and HP GPIB plotter and cranking out the print# commands yourself?

By the way, Mac OS X includes a fun little graphing application called "Grapher." It's in /Applications/Utilities . In addition to graphing equations, it can also plot data points and, much like Cricket Graph, generate interpolations based on those data points. To do so, create a new graph, selecting the appropriate graph type. Then, go to the Equation menu and select "New Point Set." Click on "Edit Points," and you'll be able to upload a comma-delimited file of x-y coordinates. Once your data is loaded, click on "Interpolation," and you'll have the same options as in the old Cricket Graph -- Affine (linear), Polynomial, and Exponential.

What's wrong? Being a tad younger than said items, I don't have any to dig out, thats what.

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Ah, Grapher. Maybe I should fiddle with it some more. I took a brief look, but was unable to get it to do semi-log (just log & log-log). And its point-entering interface is a pain. But if it will take a CSV it could be usable.

I also loved Cricket Graph. And doing log plots is easy in MATLAB.

But really, this should be trivial in Excel - and I think you should probably figure out how to do this, since it's usually the easiest software to find. I can't speak for 2007 <and I know its new interface sucks> but it's no problem in 2003. You simply create your chart with the chart wizard - and be sure to select XY (Scatter) as the chart type, NOT line . I think the problem you describe is from making line graphs. Scatter plots can also have lines, just double click on the data and select a linestyle under the "Patterns" tab. I always put my charts as new sheets, don't think that makes a difference. Double click on the axis you want to make log (or single click, Format -> Selected Axis). Then select the "Scale" tab on the "Format Axis" dialog - check the box for "Logarithmic Scale". Do this for each axis you want to make log. Done!

I would also suggest you try Excel again, plots like that should be easy to achieve. I am not a fan of Microsoft Office, but Excel is actually pretty decent program.

Grapher.app FTW. But if Apple didn't bundle grapher.app with 10.4, I'd try using GNU's matlab clone Octave. You can get it via Darwin ports. Octave uses gnuplot as it's plotting back-end, presumably giving you all gnuplot's features without its (IMHO) arcane syntax and annoying interface.

Does any one have any experience creating Apple Help Books?

It looks like a pile of crap to me.

I can create the HTML viewable by Safari no problem, but try as I may I can't arrange it into a book recognized by Apple Help Viewer. Eg I have a directory XXXX.help/Contents/Resources and the various xxxx.plist files. Even if I take an Apple provided help book and just copy it into another directory the Apple Help Viewer just shows an empty page when I view it.

What is the point of a help viewer that can't view help?

I have copied the Bluetooth.help to another directory and it says



So there must be some external reference requirement to the directory?

( Tiger, Leopard )

No idea, have you tried the apple developer books like:
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/ ... _help.html

Yes, it looks like you can't have standalone help books, they have to be within another bundle, and if they are in another bundle the user can't easily navigate into it. Sounds like it's not the medium to use for help unless it's help within an application, not help about an application.

Solution: a manpage!

I don't know if this is of any interest to anyone. but my Sun Cobalt Raq 550 also uses XFS:
http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappli ... tures.html
the cobalt os, is heavly based on RH 7.3