                       The Graphics Software DISLIN
                    ----------------------------------


Introduction
------------

DISLIN is a high-level library of subroutines  and functions  that display
data graphically. It is intended to be a powerful and easy to use software
package for programmers and scientists  that does not require knowledge of
hardware features. The software is available for the programming languages
C, Fortran 77, Fortran 90, Perl, Python and Java.

DISLIN can  display graphic information  directly on graphic terminals  or
store them in metafiles.  The supported display types are VGA,  X Windows,
Windows API  and Tektronix.  The supported file formats are  GKSLIN,  CGM,
HPGL, PostScript, Prescribe, WMF, PNG, BMP and TIFF. DISLIN metafiles  can
either be printed on various devices using the  DISLIN driver program DIS-
DRV or imported into third party products such as TeX and MS Word.

The library contains the following features:

  -  9 software fonts where each font provides 6 alphabets. Hardware fonts
     for PostScript  printers,  X11 fonts  for  X11 displays  and TrueType
     fonts for Windows 95/98/NT displays and WMF files can also be used.
     The different aphabets contain  Roman,  Greek,  Russian, mathematical 
     and special European characters.  Plotting of  mathematical  formulas
     with TeX instructions.

  -  Plotting of two- and three-dimensional axis systems.  Axes can be li-
     nearly or  logarithmically scaled and labeled with linear,  logarith-
     mic, date, time, map and user-defined formats.

  -  Plotting of curves. Several curves can  appear in one axis system and
     can be  differentiated  by colour,  line style and pattern.  Multiple
     axis systems can be displayed on a page.

  -  Plotting of legends.

  -  Elementary  plot routines  for lines,  vectors and outlined or filled
     regions such as rectangles, circles, arcs, ellipses and polygons.

  -  Shielded regions can be defined.

  -  Business graphics.

  -  3-D colour graphics.

  -  3-D graphics.

  -  Elementary image routines.

  -  Geographical projections and plotting of maps.

  -  Contouring.

  -  Graphical user interface (GUI) routines based on Motif and
     Windows API functions. 


Manuals in English are available in PostScript and PDF format.


Hard- and Software Requirements
-------------------------------


At the moment, DISLIN versions are available for the following hard- 
and software components:
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   |   Hardware       | Operating Syst. |        Compiler         |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | IBM-PC           | MS-DOS      (*) |  gcc  (DJGPP)           |
   |                  |             (*) |  g77  (DJGPP)           |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | IBM-PC           | Windows         |  Visual C++ 4.x,5.x,6.x |
   |                  |                 |  Digital Visual Fortran |
   |                  |                 |                5.x, 6.0 |
   |                  |                 |  Absoft F77, F90        |
   |                  |                 |  Intel icl, ifl 6.0     |
   |                  |                 |  Lahey LF90 3.x, 4.x,   |
   |                  |                 |             ELF90 4.0   |
   |                  |                 |  Lahey LF95 5.x         |
   |                  |                 |  Portland Group pgf77/  |
   |                  |                 |              pgf90 3.x  |
   |                  |                 |  Salford-FTN77/32 3.5   |
   |                  |                 |  Salford-FTN90/32 2.x   |
   |                  |                 |  Salford-FTN95/32 2.x   |
   |                  |             (*) |  gcc/g77/Perl Cygwin    |
   |                  |             (*) |  gcc/g77 Mingw32        |
   |                  |             (*) |  Borland C++ 5.5        |
   |                  |             (*) |  LCC-Win32              |
   |                  |             (*) |  Perl 5.6.1, ActiveState|
   |                  |             (*) |  Python 2.1, 2.2        |
   |                  |             (*) |  Java 1.2, 1.3          |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | IBM-PC           | Linux       (*) |  gcc, f2c, g77,         |
   |                  |             (*) |  Java, Perl, Python     |
   |                  |             (*) |  Absoft F77, F90        |
   |                  |             (*) |  Imagine F compiler     |
   |                  |             (*) |  Intel ifc/icc          |
   |                  |             (*) |  Lahey LF95             |
   |                  |             (*) |  NAG f90/f95            |
   |                  |             (*) |  PGF77, PGF90           |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | IBM-PC           | FreeBSD     (*) |  gcc, f2c, g77,         |
   |                  |                 |  Java, Perl, Python     |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | IBM-PC           | .NET            |  csc, Visual C++ .NET,  |
   |                  |                 |  Visual Basic .NET      |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | HP PA-RISC       | Linux       (*) |  gcc, g77, Perl, Python |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | IA64             | Linux       (*) |  gcc, g77               |
   |                  | Linux       (*) |  Intel efc, ecc 6.0     |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | Mac PPC          | Darwin      (*) |  gcc, g77, Perl, Python |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | Mac PPC          | Linux       (*) |  gcc, g77, Perl, Python |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | DEC-ALPHA        | Linux       (*) |  gcc, g77, Perl, Python |
   | DEC-ALPHA        | Linux       (*) |  Compaq Fortran         |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | DEC-ALPHA        | OpenVMS 6.x, 7.x|  FOR, CC, F90           |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | DEC-ALPHA        | OSF1 3.x, 4.x   |  f77, cc, f90,          |
   |                  |                 |  Java, Perl, Python     |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | IBM RS-6000      | AIX 4.x, 5.x    |  xlf, cc, xlf90,        |
   |                  |                 |  Java, Perl             |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | HP 9000/7xx      | HP-UX 10.20     |  f77, cc, f90,          |
   |                  |                 |  Perl, Python           |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | Silicon Graphics | IRIX 6.4/32-Bit |  f77, cc, f90           |
   |                  | IRIX 6.4/64-Bit |  f77, cc, f90           |
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
   | SUN SPARC        | SunOS 5.x       |  f77, cc, f90,          |
   |                  |                 |  Java, Perl, Python     |
   ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
   | SUN SPARC        | Linux       (*) |  gcc, g77, Perl         |
   ---------------------------------------------------------------- 

 (*)  free DISLIN versions.


Distributor
-----------

Garching Innovation, D-80539 Muenchen, Hofgartenstr. 8, 
Telefon: +49 89 290919-0, Fax: +49 89 290919-99
E-mail: gi@ipp.mpg.de
http://www.garching-innovation.mpg.de

Please contact the author.

The current prices of DISLIN are:

       ----------------------------------------------------
       |   License     |      Euro        |    US Dollar  |
       ----------------------------------------------------
       |   IBM-PC      |  130,- EUR + tax |      $150     |
       ----------------------------------------------------
       |   Workstation |  390,- EUR + tax |      $450     |
       ----------------------------------------------------
       |   Campus      | 1050,- EUR + tax |     $1200     |
       ----------------------------------------------------

   Notes:

     - All prices are unique payments and include future DISLIN up-
       grades.
 
     - A CD-ROM with the current  DISLIN software and documentation 
       is included.

     - An IBM-PC license is available  for the  DISLIN PC versions. 
       Several  DISLIN  versions  can be used on the PC at the same 
       time. 

     - A workstation license  can be used for the UNIX and VMS ver-
       sions of DISLIN installed on a single workstation.  The num-
       ber of users is unlimited. 

     - A campus license allows  DISLIN  installations on all compu-
       ters of an institute.  Additional, a pool of licenses can be
       ordered  at  low  charge  for  passing  DISLIN  licenses  to
       students,  teachers and  employee of the institute for using 
       DISLIN outside of the institute (i.e. on a private PC).

     - DISLIN is free for the  operating systems  Linux and FreeBSD 
       and for the MS-DOS and Windows 9x/NT  compilers GCC, G77 and
       LCC.  The DISLIN plotting extensions for  Java,  Python  and
       Perl and the DISLIN interpreter DISGCL can be used freely on
       all operating systems.  The other  DISLIN  versions  can  be
       tested  free of charge for 10 days.  

     - Educational institutions that teach DISLIN in classrooms can
       get a free DISLIN license for their teachers and students. 
       The educational license key  allows the student  to use  the
       software for a duration of 6 months.  After that period, the
       license key must be renewed. 

Author
------

        Helmut Michels, MPI fuer Aeronomie, Max-Planck-Str. 2,
        D-37191 Katlenburg-Lindau,
        Tel.: +49 5556 979 334, Fax: +49 5556 979 240, 
        Mail: michels@linmpi.mpg.de

Web Sites
---------

DISLIN is available via ftp anonymous from the following site:

  ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/grafik/dislin 

The DISLIN Home Page is:

  http://www.dislin.de


