Re: [Gnucap-devel] Gnucap Integrated waveform displayer Details

[al davis]

On Monday 26 May 2014, Abhinav singh wrote:
> Yes i know about it.Mainly what i wants from this plugin to
> create a file which contains the data stored in the data
> backend created for plotting function.If you see rawfile.c
> in frontend of ngspice you will get some idea of what i am
> talking about.

After the output becomes plugable it might make sense to support 
other formats.  As of now, gnucap can write a file that is 
compatible with everything except spice.

The spice rawfile is a throwback to the Fortran days when 
everything ran batch.  It allowed the simulator engine and data 
output to be separate executables.  Originally, the format is 
what it is because it was easy to dump.  As things changed, the 
rawfile code became more convoluted to attempt to maintain 
compatibility in the file as the data structures became more 
incompatible.

You really don't need to deal with files at all to do the 
waveform display.

The database idea requires a lot more thought before pushing 
ahead.  In this context, after you get the basic spice-style 
plotting, I  would rather see more variants on plotting, such as 
doing math on plots, waveform based triggering, resweep like an 
oscilloscope, polar plots.  At least think of this up front so 
it can be added later.

Again, you really don't need to deal with files.  But if you do, 
first you need to learn how gnucap deals with files.