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