Selecting a Graphics Device

You can find the list of available devices and their names with task GDNAMES. Names can be abbreviated provided they remain unambiguous. Two alternative naming schemes are supported, and the list produced by GDNAMES will include both.

PGPLOT

A general graphics device specification is of the form <file>/<type>, where <type> indicates the type of the graphics device (e.g. PostScript printer, X-window, etc.) and <file> is an optional string which indicates either a file in which the graphical output should be stored or a specification for a particular device of the specified type. For instance, m31.ps/VPS produces a file called m31.ps containing output suitable for sending to a PostScript printer in portrait mode, and xwindows2/GWM sends graphical output to the GWM X-window with name xwindows2. If the <file> string is omitted, a default device-dependent value is used (for instance, pgplot.ps for postscipt files and xwindows for X-windows).

GNS

For compatibility with previous versions of KAPPA graphics devices may also be specified using a scheme that approximates closely to that of the Starlink Graphics workstation Name Service (GNS) library (see SUN/57). In this scheme a complete workstation specification is of the form <type>;<file>. This is very similar to the PGPLOT scheme described above, but the device type and file are swapped round, and the separator is a semicolon instead of a solidus. As for PGPLOT , the device file can be omitted, in which case a default is used, but note that in this case the semicolon should also be omitted. The only supported devices are those for which PGPLOT drivers are available. If a device was also available in the GKS-based graphics systems previously used by KAPPA, then you can refer to it either using its PGPLOT device type or its GNS device type.

In either scheme, either the device type or the file name or the entire device specification may be replaced by a logical name, in which case the value of the logical name will be used instead.