Bugs and common problems

When I start xdatplot, I get all kinds of errors. Why?

If you get a lot of complaints about missing keysyms, you need to replace your XKeysymDB with a version that defines the Motif keysyms. Place this file in either /usr/openwin/lib or /usr/lib/X11, wherever your current XKeysymDB is. If you don't have root access, try this: put XKeysymDB somewhere in your own directories, then set the environment variable XKEYSYMDB pointing to it.

This is actually just one of several annoying problems that result from using Motif widgets on Sun platforms. A lot of these will also show up with NCSA Mosaic. The NCSA Mosaic FAQ describes how to solve many of them.

Why can't xdatplot read text files?

To read text files, xdatplot needs a translator program called asc2bin. You can get asc2bin wherever you got xdatplot. Install it in any directory in your $PATH. See here for more information on how xdatplot handles text files.

File Print doesn't work, even though I can write postscript files and print them.

xdatplot uses a dippy little shell script called print_big to do its printing. print_big allows your spooler to handle big files without a lot of messy printer reconfiguration. Get print_big wherever you got xdatplot, and install it in any directory in your $PATH.

If you prefer, you can change the print command with the printCommand resource. See Customization (X resources).

Nothing looks right, nothing works.

If when you run xdatplot, a window pops up looking like nothing on earth...

...you have incorrectly installed application defaults. It may not look exactly like this, depending on your Motif configuration. In fact, it may not look even remotely like this. But it will look wrong.

Look in /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults or (on Sun platforms) /usr/openwin/lib/app-defaults for a file called XDatplot. If there is one, delete it or rename it. Now start XDatplot again. It should work better this time.

But I WANT to have a system XDatplot application-defaults file!

You can still do it, but you need to get XDatplot.ad from wherever you got xdatplot (it's also in the source distribution), and install it in .../app-defaults/XDatplot. You can then edit it to make changes. If you create a little XDatplot file with just a few resource specifications, xdatplot loses all its fallback resources.

This is a pretty stupid design. It would be much better if xdatplot used all the fallback resources except those that were specified in the system defaults file. Unfortunately, that's not the way the Xt library handles fallback resources. If any system defaults file exists, all the fallback resources are discarded. If any Xperts out there know how to work aorund this problem, I'd be very grateful for a hint.

Can xdatplot handle multi-channel recordings?

Not really. The Pick filter will allow you to look at one channel of a multi-channel file. You can have as many xdatplot windows running at the same time as you want, each using a pick filter to display a different channel of the same file. But you can't superpose the traces in the different channels, they won't scroll together, you'll have to load new files separately in each window...

That's just the way it is at the moment. I've given some thought to making xdatplot understand multi-channel data, but it's a lot of work, and it's probably not going to happen soon unless someone else does it.

I don't like the plot window keyboard shortcuts. Can I change them?

No. They are hard-coded. This design is obviously stupid and may change in a future release.

Why are there no cursors in file selection boxes?

Beats me. If I ever figure it out, I'll fix it. If you ever figure it out, tell me.

Leon Avery (leon@eatworms.swmed.edu