Release notes

Version

• The demo program demo\pub.m was expanded to include an additional plot (bar chart).
• A bug was fixed that caused an error when null strings were specified in the TraceID parameter.
• The cursor ID (cid) is now saved in the axis user data even for subplot axes.
• Changes for compatibility with Matlab ver 2009b

• Added a cursor mode to show distance from cursor to the origin or to the marked location, i.e. abs(x+iy). See Average, RMS, Slope, & Distance readout section in Cursoring.
• Improvements and bug fixes to the "plt hardcopy" function (from the file menu or optionally in the menu box). Defaults are now saved in pltHcpy.mat in the folder containing plt.m.
• Fixed a bug that caused the cursor to misbehave when cursoring non-monotonic traces on the right hand axis.
• Fixed a bug that caused annotations added with the "mark" feature to sometimes be associated with the incorrect axis.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the gridlines to not initialize properly until the first time you clicked on the figure window.
• Fixed some bugs related to grid lines on subplots (turning on/off via the menu box tag or via the 'Ticks' options argument).
• Fixed bug in setting x-axis limits for right hand column of subplots ('Xlim' parameter).
• Improved cursor hiding feature (right click of y-axis label) to work with subplots as well.

• Added a new example (pub.m) to the demo folder to show how to optimize a plot for publication (instead of the typical data exploration uses of plt). Also demonstrates the use of the new property prefix characters described below.
• Previously there were two property prefix characters ('+', '-') which refer to the left and right axis properties. (Without the prefix characters plt assumes properties are to be applied to the line objects.) Now three additional prefix characters have been added ('<', '>', '.') which refer the properties to the left y-label, right y-label and x-label respectively. A property may be preceded by more than one prefix character.  For example '>.-FontSize',14  will change the font size of the right y-label, the x-label and the tick marks of the right hand axis. See Axis properties for details.
• Improved demoplt.m so that it is easier to tell which demo is currently running.
• Fixed a bug with the workspace plotter that occurred when the workspace contained a large number of variables.

• Fixed a bug in plt's Edit line selection from the color menu.
• Fixed a bug in demoplt.m that would sometimes cause an error if you clicked in the listbox window.
• Fixed a bug in the plt('open') command for non Windows systems
• Significant enhancements to the winplt.m demo program including the use of an application specific help file as well as the use of a popup control to edit a vector (the window kernel in this example).
• Added the plt hideCur command. Equivalent to right clicking on the y-axis label. See Cursor commands.
• Added the plt('showTrace',e) command. For details see the "DIStrace" section at Trace properties.
• Documentation updates

• All the example routines in the demo folder (except the scripts) were substantially rewritten for improved clarity.
• The winplt demo now demonstrates how to include two help tags in the menu box (one for plotting help and the other for application specific help). The files winplt.chm and winplt.pdf were added both to demonstrate this feature and to provide more extensive information about the winplt demo program.
• The demoplt.m program was rewritten to make it easier to run the individual examples as well as auto-sequence thru them. A listbox was added to allow easy viewing of the demo programs help text.
• In addition to pure strings to be evaluated, the plt callback functions now allows you to specifying a function handle of the form @func as well as the cell array form {@func, arg1, ar2, ... argn} which lets you provide arguments to the callback function. This applies to the plt parameters moveCB, axisCB, TIDcback, Xstring, and Ystring as well as the callbacks for the auxiliary plt functions edit, pop, and slider. Note that you can't take advantage of the string substitution features of these callbacks when using the function handle forms. This form is now used in many of the programming examples.
• Added the ability to modify properties of the left or right axis using plt parameters. (See +AxisProp, -AxisProp). This feature is demonstrated in the demo\pltvbar.m example program.
• Enhanced the data editing features to include the ability to add or remove data points from a trace. Also added a more natural way of entering the data edit mode. See data editing for details.
• Added a new set command ('val') to the plt('slider') plt auxiliary function. See here.
• Added the plt('save',file) command. See menu box for details.
• Fixed a bug that caused the right hand axis to be missing from getappdata(gcf,'axis'), as well as a minor bug fix in the data editing mode and a bug fix relating to a rare crash when saving a file from the menu bar.

• This is the first release which includes the full .m  source code. The pcode or dll versions are no longer needed.
• Added the TraceMK parameter to allow you to include the line types in the trace selection box. See the demo programs demo\trigplt.m and demo\subplt.m  for examples of using this parameter. See Trace properties for a complete description of the TraceMX parameter.
• Added a new example to the demo folder (trigplt.m) to demonstrate the use of the TraceMK parameter as well as the use of the slider pseudo object.
• Added the Fig parameter to allow plt to use an already opened figure window instead of creating a new one. See Labels and figure properties for a complete description of the Fig parameter.

• Fixed a bug which caused plt to crash when called from a guide application.
• Fixed a bug which sometimes caused the wrong foreground color in the cursor edit boxes.
• Fixed a bug which sometimes caused the Xlim or Ylim parameter to be ignored.
• Improved the operation of the x-axis slider.

• The SubPlot parameter was added, a major enhancement in plt's ability to place multiple plots in a figure window. This is more flexible and far easier to use than the subplot method introduced in version 19Aug08. The demo\subplt.m and subplt8.m examples were rewritten to use the new SubPlot parameter. The weight.m example (which was also simplified by using the new parameter) also demonstrates a trick for allowing multiple traces in each subplot. See Axis properties for a complete description of the SubPlot parameter.
• The Xlim and LabelX parameters now allow cell array inputs so that they may specify values for the right hand column of subplots. The LabelY parameter now allows a cell array input so that you can specify labels for all the subplots as well as for the right hand axis of the main plot, and Ylim parameter can take a cell array input to specify limits for both the left and right hand axis of the main plot.
• Added an easier way to remove cursor objects for production plots. See the -All and the Nocursor items under the Options parameter. (The last figure of the circles12.m example demonstrates this usage.)
• Right clicking on the Menu tag in the menu box will now toggle the line style used for of all traces. (See Menu box)
• Added the Lhandles, axis, and cid cid figure application properties. (See Calling sequence)
• Added the 'tag','MenuBox' property to the menu box axis to make it easier to find.
• Added a new parameter to the plt('grid','init',... command (the erase mode). (See Auxiliary plt functions). Also the default erase mode for the grids has changed from xor to normal. You may select the exclusive-or erase mode for the grids by specifying a grid color containing a negative value (e.g. 'GRIDc',[0 -.2 .4]). The actual grid color used in this example is [0 .2 .4]).
• Added a special case to the plt('cursor',cid,'set','activeLine',a,k) command for when a is zero. (See Cursor commands)
• Added a special case for null trace ID strings. (See Trace properties)
• Fixed bug that could cause a crash when selecting logarithmic y-axis.
• Fixed bug that caused a crash when using the color selection box to edit plot colors.

• A zero is now allowed for the 3rd or 4th element of the 'position' parameter to indicated that the width or height of the window should be chosen so that circles will look symmetric. However after stretching the figure size with the mouse, the circle will then look like an ellipse. If you want the circle to look symmetric even after the figure window is resized, you should follow the plt command with the command axis('equal').
• The example programs circle12.m  and  editz.m  were enhanced to demonstrate the feature mentioned above.
• The TraceID box has been made wider in situations where it will not run into the y-axis label.
• The file plt.dll is now compressed into a zip file called pltdll.zip. This replaces a different type of compression used in earlier releases that caused some errant virus protection programs to flag this file as a virus. (For a description of this file, see the installation instructions or see the last item in the 12-Mar-08 release notes).

• Added two new example programs (demo\subplt.m and subplt8.m) which show how to put several plots (each with its own cursor) in a single figure window. The cursor move callback (moveCB) and the axis callback (axisCB) are used to keep the plots synchronized.
• The way that plt.chm is opened when you click on the help tag has been improved. Previously plt and any application calling plt would hang until the help window was closed. Now you can continue to use plt while the help window is open.
• The axis change (axisCB) callback is now called (as it should) when you click on the Zout or XY<-> tags in the menu box.
• Now when you right click on the y-axis label, the menu box and all cursor objects disappear. Right clicking again causes the objects to reappear. This is useful for making screen captures of the plots since these objects are used for data exploration and are normally just a distraction in a hardcopy. See cursoring.
• The cursor('get','obj') call was added so that one can easily get the handles of the cursor objects.
• The cursor('set','VISon') and  VISoff calls were improved so that they now include control of the xstring and ystring objects, the x-cursor slider and the cursor id string.
• A bug was fixed which caused plt to render some text improperly when the default text interpreter was changed.
• A bug was fixed which sometimes caused the plt cursor to change shape after the data editing feature was used.

• Added a new example program (demo\movbar.m) which shows a simple way to start and stop a moving plot as well as demonstrating the use of the xstring parameter.
• Added the ability to set properties of the main axis from within the plt call. (Just add a "+" in front of the axis property name. For example +FontSize will set the axis font size property. For an example of how you might use this feature, see the demo\pltvbar.m demo program.
• Added a cursor function to call the user defined cursor callbacks. (See the mainCur function and demo\movbar.m)

• Added the ability to link the left and right axes for panning and zooming. This option is enabled by default. Use the new AxisLink parameter to turn off linking by default. Regardless of the status of the default you may toggle the axis linking by clicking on the right-hand y-axis label. The divide sign indicates the axes are unlinked (i.e. divided).
• Improved the demo\editz.m demo program, which now displays phase as well as magnitude. It also demonstrates the use of the new AxisLink parameter
• Previously although a plt figure could be saved (.fig), when the figure was reopened the usual plt cursor controls would not be available. In this release, plt save and plt open items have been added to the file menu. Figures saved via the plt save menu are saved with a .plt extension (although like .fig files they are actually ordinary .mat files). You can reopen the figure from a file browser dialog box by selecting the plt open menu or by typing plt open at the command prompt. Or at the command prompt you can type plt open filename.
• Fixed a bug relating to metric prefixes on the y-axis. (The scaling was improperly applied to the right hand axis where as the intention was that it should be applied only to the left hand axis.)
• Fixed a bug relating to the modification and saving of color schemes when a right hand axis was being used.

• Changed the method of rendering the right-hand axes to avoid the problem when plotting overlapping or very dense data sets.
• Changes for compatibility with Matlab ver 7.5
• Previously data editing only worked on traces on the left axis. Now it works on the right axis as well.
• Renamed the "COLORc" parameter to "COLORdef" for clarity.
• Eliminated the flicker and window movement you used to see when starting plt.
• Fixed bug in plt('datestr') and other minor bug fixes.
• Added the plt.d  file to this release. This dll is only useful for compiled applications using the older Matlab compiler (ver 2.2) that shipped with Matlab 6.1. Feel free to delete this file if you are not using that compiler. (To use this file, rename it to plt.dll)

• Many of the example programs where modified to improve clarity.
• A new example program (demo\dice.m) was added that shows how to plot a function as it is as it is being computed (i.e. the plot shows the function growing in length).
• A new feature was added to the x-axis label. Now when you left/right click on this label the cursor x-axis position increments/decrements by one data index. See the cursoring section for details.
• The x-axis slider now provides a more natural functionality. See the cursoring section for details.
• The cursor 'maincur' call now changes the axis limits if necessary to keep the cursor in view.
• Modified the default trace color ordering. The most significant change is that yellow is now used as the color of the 13th trace instead of the 7th. This means that yellow will be used less often (which is good since yellow doesn't normally print well).

• Expanded the pltsq.m example to show how all the traces can be cursored at once
• Several of the demo examples were edited to improve readability
• Removed the 'noshift' option that was added in the previous version. (This proved to be misguided).

• The plt('datestr') function has been modified slightly. For dates between 2000 and 2099, it now uses two digits for the year instead of four. For example "12-Jan-2007" becomes "12-Jan-07". This only applies to date string formats 0 and 1.
• A new method of drawing a zoom expansion box is provided ... hold both mouse buttons down, and drag. (Actually this method was previously available as an undocumented feature.)
• The demo\tasplt.m example program was updated and simplified. It now shows how to use a right hand or top axis to plot in more than one unit.

• The plt('slider') function has been reworked to be easier to use. Several arguments were reordered with improved defaults. See winplt.m and the new wfall.m for examples of how to use the slider object.
• A new example program (demo\wfall.m) was added to demonstrate waterfall plotting as well as extensive use of the plt('slider') function.
• Now the callback function defined by 'moveCB' is not called by events initiated from outside the figure window containing the cursor. (For example a button push that moves the cursor in another figure window would not activate the callback.) The reason for this change was to prevent infinite loops when figure A modifies figure B's cursor and visa versa. If you do want to enable the callback for external events, insert an extra semicolon as the first character of the moveCB callback string.
• Fixed bug causing the cursor to move to the wrong y-axis position for traces on the right hand axis (only a problem when clicking in the axis area). Also improved the ability to select the desired line when several right hand traces are close together.
• Removed the 'NewLimit' parameter. (It had the same function as 'axisCB'.)

• Removed the 99 trace limitation for cases where the TraceID box is not used.
• Added the 'moveCB' and 'axisCB' parameters to plt as an alternate to the equivalent plt('cursor',...) commands. The editz.m example was modified to take advantage of this.
• Added a new example (demo\bounce.m) showing how to use matrix arguments to create many line objects at once. Also shows how to avoid plt's 99 trace limit by disabling the TraceIDs.
• Modified the pltn example to allow displaying an unlimited number of traces.
• The colors specified by TRACEc are now used in a cyclical fashion to allow specifying fewer colors than traces.
• The ENAcur and DIStrace parameters are now extended if they contain fewer elements than the number of traces.
• Added TIDcolumn to the documentation (inadvertent omission).
• Fixed a bug causing the "Mark" function to crash when TraceIDs are disabled.
• Fixed a bug causing incorrect colors when choosing COLORc,'default'.

• The 'Xstring' and 'Ystring' parameters where added to provide additional textual information related to the plotted data including customized cursor readouts. The ptln.m, tasplt.m, editz.m examples now use this feature to good advantage.
• The callback functions defined by 'TIDcback', 'Xstring', 'Ystring', 'moveCB', and 'axisCB' can now contain strings within strings defined using a single double quote character on either side of the string, instead of the usual and more cumbersome method using two single quote characters on each side.
• The 'pltquiv.m' example was updated to demonstrate the use of the 'TIDcback' parameter.
• Added a right click action to the XY↔ (XYrotate) tag in the menu box.
• Improved the avg and rms cursor readout so that NaN values are ignored.
• Added an additional plot to the circles12.m example program.
• Added the @CID tag to the 'moveCB' cursor callback function. The weight.m and tasplt.m examples now make use of this tag.
• The xy output from plt('cursor',cid,'get','position') is now complex.
• Improved the look of the cursor peak/valley buttons and delta cursor button by removing the rectangular dotted line around the string.
• Fixed bug in Y/X cursor value
• Added "HardCopy" as the fourth item of the File menu. (See "print" under "Menu box").
• Many documentation improvements and updates

• Added the capability of assigning different line property values for each trace
• A new parameter (TIDcolumn) was added to allow you to arrange the trace IDs in multiple columns.
• Added a new demo program (circles12.m)
• Fixed a bug that prevented assigning a color to two different traces.
• Fixed a bug that caused incorrect positioning for the "Mark" function (right hand axis).
• Added a default to the color property of the 'pop' and 'edit' objects ([1 1 .4]). Fixed the default color for the background of an open 'pop' menu to agree with the documentation.
• Added the Fresnel function to curves.m demo so that the symbolic toolbox is not called.
• Modified the editz.m example so that the signal processing toolbox is not required.
• Modified the winplt.m example program so that it can run without the signal processing toolbox, however in that case it will not be able to display all the window types.

• The way plt handles complex arguments was changed. Now including w in the argument list (where w is complex) is equivalent to including the two arguments "real(w),imag(w)". In earlier revisions this was only true sometimes.
• The delta button is now highlighted whenever the delta cursor mode has been selected.
• Left clicking on the up/down arrow buttons moves to the next peak/valley respectively as before. Also as before, clicking on the trace resets the peak or valley finder so that the next click of the up/down arrow brings you to the largest peak or smallest valley. Now, the resetting of the peak or valley finder may also be accomplished by right clicking on the up/down arrow button.
• Added files:
  vbar.m - for displaying functions as vertical bars
  ebar.m - for displaying error bars
  quiv.m - for displaying vector fields (arrows)
• The functionality of quiv.m is similar to Matlab's quiver.m although unlike quiver, quiv doesn't call plot. Therefore you must call plot or plt with the data generated by quiv. In earlier versions of plt, the code in quiv.m was inside plt.p, but I extracted it to a separate function to provide more flexibility and a cleaner user interface.
• In the previous release, all the files were in the same folder. In this release a new folder named "demo" was added to contain all the example programs.
• A new program named demoplt.m was added (in the demo folder) which runs all 12 example programs in succession. Every time you press <Enter> demoplt will close the current example and start up the next one.
• A new example program named pltvbar.m was added to demonstrate the use of vbar.m and ebar.m .
• The pltquiv.m example program was modified to use the new quiv.m function.

• A new parameter ('Right') was added to specify which traces should be on the right hand axis. In earlier plt versions, only one trace was allowed on the right hand axis and it had to be the last trace. Now you may place any or all of the traces on the right axis. For example, in the argument list you could specify 'Right',[1 4:2:10 17]. Then plt would put trace numbers 1,4,6,8,10, and 17 on the right axis and all other traces on the left axis. A slight shading is used behind the Trace IDs associated with the right hand axis so you can tell at a glance which traces belong to which axis. You can also tell which axis a trace is on by the shape of its cursor (+/o for left/right axis). As with earlier revisions, a right axis is created if you include the 'LabelYR', or 'YlimR' parameters in the argument list. For clarity, you should also include the 'Right' parameter in that case, however if omitted, plt will put the last trace on the right axis.
• A new parameter ('DualCur') was added to control a feature I now call a dual cursor. The usual cursor can only show the value of one of the visible traces on the plot. With a dual cursor, two such values can be shown at the same time - especially useful when displaying two tightly linked values (for example, the magnitude and phase of a complex quantity). In earlier versions of plt, a dual cursor was provided, however it was forced to be on the last trace only which was also forced to be on the right hand axis. (Moreover the dual cursor was not optional. If you wanted to use a right hand axis, you automatically got a dual cursor). As of this version, you specify a dual cursor for the Nth trace by including 'DualCur',N in the parameter list. This means that trace N will never be the active trace and so its value will never appear in the usual y value readout location (immediately to the right of the "y:" cursor label). However when you cursor any other trace, a cursor will also appear on trace N at the same x-axis location and the value of trace N will appear just to the right of the value for the active trace. The dual cursor is easily distinguished from the usual cursor by its shape - an asterisk if the dual cursored trace is on the left axis or a square if it is on the right axis.
• A new parameter ('TIDcback',fcn) was added to that one can define a callback function to be executed whenever the user clicks on a Trace ID (i.e. a trace is enabled or disabled).
• The winplt example program was updated to show comparisons between previous window time shapes as well as the previous frequency shapes. (In the earlier revision, only the previous frequency shapes were saved). This takes advantage of plt's new ability to put multiple traces on the right hand axis.

• Added the Color menu to the menu bar providing the ability to change any of the colors used by plt and optionally to make those changes permanent.
• Enhanced the ability to edit strings created with the plt('edit') command by using the left and right arrow keys.
• Enhanced the functionality of the winplt example program.
• Changed the default alignment of  plt('edit') strings to 'center'.  (Required to make the increment/decrement feature to work.)
• Set foreground (text) color of x/y cursor readout objects to white or black, whichever enhances contrast.
• Swapped execution order of MoveCB and MoveCB2 callbacks. This appears to fix the problem of mouse button up events getting lost (which was only a problem with Matlab ver 2006a or later).
• Swapped viewing order of the menu and TraceID boxes. This fixed the problem where the top menu box item was inaccessible.
• Fixed bug with '@VAL' substitution in plt('slider').
• Fixed bug in plt('slider') relating to the '%d' format.
• Fixed bug relating to accidentally redefining the exp() function
• Fixed bug relating to finding the help file.

• Added a new option plt('Options','Slider',... to create a slider used for changing the cursor x position
• Added a dialog box (via a right click on the Mark tag) that allows the editing of line and cursor properties
• Fixed delta cursors so they can work between different traces
• Extended plt('ftoa',...) to work with vectors as well as scalars and added a delimiter option. The plt('vtoa',...) function was also enhanced.
• Added the [TexOff] specifier in the 'title' option.
• The slider now replaces '@VAL' in the slider callback with the current slider value.
• Biased 'metricp' call to favor no prefix between .1 and 9999
• Changed order of ancillary cursor readout functions (now Avg, RMS, Y/X)
• Added the plt('rename',s) function
• Added the plt('cursor','set','activeLine') function
• Enhanced the  plt('cursor','Maincur') call by allowing optional parameters
• Added the  plt('cursor','init' ...) call to the documentation
• Added a new example program called weight.m

• Changed default color order for better hardcopy results
• Fixed minor bug in the workspace plotter

• Added the Zout and Print tags to the menu box
• Minor bug fixes and documentation updates

• Minor improvements to the pseudo slider object

• Added support for plotting vector arrows (quiver)
• Added the option to use cell arrays of strings in place of character arrays in argument lists
• Extended the use of the 'AxisPos' parameter (position of TraceID)
• The workspace plotter recognizes the new TraceIDlen parameter
• Added  plt close as an alternative to plt closefigs
• Added a new programming example (pltquiv.m) to demonstrate quiver and several other plt features
• Minor bug fixes and documentation updates

• Added the auxiliary function plt('edit') for creating edit text objects
• Added the auxiliary function plt('pop') for creating popup text objects
• Added a new programming example (curves.m) to demonstrate the use of the plt('edit') and plt('pop') commands.
• Fixed a bug in the data editing capability that caused it to work only with large fonts selected in windows.

• Two new programming examples have been added (tasplt.m and winplt.m).
• Added the slider component plt('slider',...). See winplt.m for an example of its use.
• Added auxiliary functions plt('ftoa'), plt('vtoa'), plt('closefigs'), plt('help'), and plt('version').
• The workspace plotter now can plot vectors contained inside structures.
• The default figure window position was changed so it doesn't overlap the start menu.
• Minor bug fixes and documentation updates

• A new programming example (editz.m) has been included to demonstrate the utility of the data editing capability.

• Eliminated the commercial version of plt and integrated the enhanced features into the free version. The public domain version of plt now supports delta cursors and up to 99 traces (an increase from five traces).
• The workspace plotter has been added, which allows you to interactively select the vectors in your Matlab workspace that you want to plot. This is activated by calling plt with no arguments. A new sample script (pltvar.m) was added to demonstrate this feature. It simply creates several vectors in the workspace and calls plt with no arguments.
• The cursor ID tag is now always to the left of the cursor y label. Changing the cursor ID tag to Avg or RMS is now accomplished by clicking on the cursor ID tag itself to rotate among the options. Also an additional option (Y/X) has been added to this selection, which displays the ratio of the y and x cursor values. (In delta cursor mode, this can be used to display the slope of a trace segment.)
• Data editing has been added. The data editing mode is entered by right clicking on the x or y cursor edit boxes. See the documentation for additional details.

• Modified the plt5 and pltn examples so they didn't use interp (interp requires the signal processing toolbox)
• Renamed PLT.p to plt.p in the zip file (unix is case sensitive)
• Added the release notes section to the documentation

• Added a more obvious way to restore zoomed axis limits
•  Fixed minor bug with the Styles argument
• Improved the Options argument and made it less cryptic
• Supply documentation as html in addition to chm
• Provided an easy way to use Matlab's default colors
• Improved the organization of the help file

• First public release of plt