PDAS home > Contents > In Progress > Longlib
Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)  

This library is a set of subroutines designed for vector plotting to CRT's, plotters, dot matrix, and laser printers. LONGLIB subroutines are invoked by program calls similar to standard CALCOMP routines. In addition to the basic plotting routines, LONGLIB contains an extensive set of routines to allow viewport clipping, extended character sets, graphic input, shading, polar plots, and 3-D plotting with or without hidden line removal.

LONGLIB capabilities include surface plots, contours, histograms, logarithm axes, world maps, and seismic plots. LONGLIB includes master subroutines, which are self-contained series of commonly used individual subroutines. When invoked, the master routine will initialize the plotting package, and will plot multiple curves, scatter plots, log plots, 3-D plots, etc. and then close the plot package, all with a single call. The LONGLIB package includes the graphics library source code, an on-line help library, scan converter and meta file conversion programs, and command files for installing, creating, and testing the library.

The italicized text above is from the official NASA release to COSMIC. If you would like to examine the source code and documentation for this program, you may download longlib.zip and explore. The code is somewhat specific to the VAX computer and the RAMTEK graphics device from the 1980s. The .doc files are not Microsoft Word, but simple text files. The manual is longlib.rno, which is in runoff format (Unix). There may be some value to this open source package, but I think it is largely superseded in concept and execution by gnuplot. I found the tables of points that define the outlines of the continents and political boundaries interesting and useful for drawing maps and for making charts showing satellite tracks. I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions.

PDAS home > Contents > In Progress > Longlib
Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)