[Groff] Business Graphics

[Deri James]

The attached zip contains the prototype of a new pre-processor I am proposing 
for groff, it is still quite rough, virtually no error checking yet. Its 
purpose is to provide inline "business type" graphs for groff. I know we have 
grap which seems to be aimed at the more mathematical end of graphs, I'm 
aiming for the sort of graphs which a typical office spreadsheet might 
produce.

The advantage of producing graphs "inline", rather than adding them with 
PSPIC, is that they use groff's inbuilt drawing commands, so, they are 
embedded as vector graphics, rather than bit mapped graphics.

I have deliberately decided not to incorporate too much intelligence. There is 
no checking whether what you ask for will fit, or text will overwrite each 
other, because by changing a few parameters from their defaults, you can 
usually produce something which looks alright. In the zip are the following:-

busgrap.pl

Since it is not yet integrated into groff, run it like this:-

./busgrap.pl file.trf | groff [options] -T pdf > file.pdf

Introduction.trf

Not finished yet, but holds plenty of examples.

HowTo.trf

Another introduction, but just covering the creation of pie charts.

Introduction.pdf
HowTo.pdf

The results of running the .trf files through busgrap and groff.

If you have time please have a look and if you have any good ideas for 
improvements or additions, post them back to the list. I don't guarantee I 
will have the ability or the time to implement all suggestions!

Cheers 

Deri

busgrap-20150523.tgz
Description: application/compressed-tar