guff: a plot device
guff reads a stream of points from a file / stdin and plots them.
guff is short for MacGuffin.
guff is distributed under the ISC License.
Plots them?
It can plot to stdout:
$ wc -l *.c, grep -v total, sort -nr, awk '{print($1)}', ./guff -d 72x30
x: [0 - 15] y: [0 - 302] -- 0: #
+
#, +, #, #, + #, #, #, #, + #, #, +, # #, #, #
+, #, # #
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-
$ ./guff -d 40x20 -m count test_sin
x: [0 - 720] y: [-1 - 1]
+, ijjh, 9j1 2j8, ba ba, 98 98
+ 6a b5, 1d e, e e, 94 58, 2a a2
6----+----+----+---d+----+----+----+--8-
49 94, a3 49, e e, 2c d1
+ 78 96, b6 7a, d7 8c, cg hb, 3jjjj2
Or to SVG:
$ wc -l *.c, grep -v total, sort -nr, awk '{print($1)}', ./guff -s -m line -r > example.svg
cat <<EOF, ./guff -s -x -m count
1 1
1 2
-2 -3
3 -4
-2 -3
2 4
3 -4
1 2
3 5
-2 -3
Input format
guff reads a stream of lines of floating point numbers, separated by a single character:
1 2.0 3
and
1,2,3
both read as 1.0, 2.0, 3.0.
If multiple separators appear, then the value is treated as missing for that column's row:
1,,3
reads as 1.0, [missing value], 3.0.
Any line beginning with "/" or "#" is ignored, and anything else that
strtod(3) considers an ill-formatted number (e.g. "-") will lead to
the rest of the line being skipped.
Blank lines
Blank lines make guff plot and reset. For example, guff can be used to
convert an infinite stream of data periodically broken up by blank lines
into an infinite stream of SVG plots, also broken up by blank lines.
(The included script, discretion, splits these into timestamped SVG
files and updates a symlink to the newest.)
Why write another plotter?
Not everything has graphic libraries installed (or a graphic environment at all),
and sometimes it's helpful to get a rough feel for data's distribution from a
text-mode command line. SVG images can also be generated pretty easily.
Installation
guff depends on on nothing besides a standard POSIX environment.
To build it, type make.
To run the tests, type make test.
Usage
Usage: guff [-A] [-c] [-d WxH] [-f] [-h] [-l xyc]
[-m MODE] [-r] [-s] [-S] [-x] [FILE]
Common options:
-d WxH: set width and height (e.g. "-d 72x40", "-d 640x480")
-f: flip x & y axes in plot
-h: print help message
-l LOG: any of 'x', 'y', 'c' -- set X, Y, and/or count to log scale
-m MODE: dot, count, line (SVG only), default dot
-s: render to SVG
-x: treat first column as X for all following Y columns (def: use row count)
SVG only:
-c: use colorblind-safe default colors
-r: draw linear regression lines
Other options (mostly for internal testing):
-A: don't draw axes
-S: disable stream mode
For more details, see the man page.