MC’s
PLOTXY (and utilities) download
Windows 2021 September
amended
Windows 2019 December (no ATP)
Pl42mat (late nineties) Converts pl4
files into matlab format (V4 format, still accepted
by recent Matlab distros)
CombinePl4s.exe. Combines pl4 files
into a unique file, in Adf format. Maybe in the
future further input and /or output formats will be added.
October 2012 (Older user interface)
PlotXY is written in C++.
It was originally developed,
starting from 1997, using
Borland’s C++Builder 1.0. That Rapid Application Development
platform was, for those times, fast and brilliant and produced very compact
executables. Only windows version was available.
Since then
the world has changed. Borland does exist anymore and the companies that, for
some years, continued some development of C++ Builder’ successors eventually
gave up. Moreover, the expansion of Web has made cross-platform development a
must.
Because of these facts, starting
from 2011 the program was re-built using Qt. It has the advantage to allow fast
deployment for different platforms, and that it is rich of libraries that allow
to do nearly everything conceivable on today’s digital devices.
The new interface has many
advantages over the old one:
1. Post-processing is much more
powerful and flexible than older version’s
2. SVG and pdf outputs are now possible
3. New devices’ features such as 4k
resolution and multiple screens can be exploited effectively
However, not everything with the new interface betters the old one. For
instance:
·
Executable
files are much larger. Nevertheless, sizes are still small according to today’s
standards. For instance, the executable of the Win version is 17 MB, smaller
than many programs running on our smartphones
·
Clipboard
export as Windows metafile is not supported. Nevertheless, SVG’s are now
available, which are a modern cross-platform substitute of WMF and EMF as
object-oriented exports.
The most
recent version using the Old user
interface, dated October 2012, is the only still available for download.
The newer user interface, instead, is still maintained: bugs are fixed and some
new features and/or enhancements introduced.
Because of
all this, I strongly recommend using
the latest versions of PlotXY, instead of the October 2012 one. Once
accustomed, you will enjoy a lot of improvements!