GDCHART v0.11.5dev

When will V1.0 be released?.

SEE THE README WITH THE PARTICULAR VERSION DONLOADED
Compiles cleanly on HPUX LINUX SOLARIS SUNOS 
  just type 'make' in the chart directory
  this produces: gdc.o gdchart.o, price_conv.o gdc_pie.o, and libgdc.a
  these with gdc.h, gdchart.h, gdcpie.h, make up the gdchart library


  gdc_samp1.c, gdc_samp2.c and gdc_pie_samp.c are provided as examples.
  They're in the Makefile for example compilation/linking
  gdc_samp1 writes to stdout, so if running from the command line:
        gdc_samp1 > test.gif

  To install type 'make install'
  By default the libs and includes are copied to /usr/local

gcc 2.7.1 or better is required.
   (Others can't handle non-static auto arrays
    I've tried with Sun's C professional developers package,
    HP's ANSI compiler, MS VC++)
(if getting gcc is a problem (it's free), I can supply native binaries for
  HPUX (PA),
  Solaris (Sparc),
  SunOS (Sparc),
  Linux (x86),
 and *MAYBE*
  SCO (x86) )
Note to Win/NT users:
  GCC for Win/NT is required to compile the lib down to binaries; these may or may not be able to be used by MS VC++, Borland, etc.


Quick usage notes (until a 'real' help/README page is written)
--------------------------------------------------------------

- there is precious little error checking
  be sure to pass correctly sized arrays AND the correct number of arguments

- IMPORTANT NOTE about parameter passing:
  Prior to v0.10 GDCHART userd variable arguments (stdarg) this interface is stil available;
  This applies to that interface: out_graph()
  the number of arguments must be accurate.
  num_sets (arg 7) determines the number of expected data arrays (args 8 - n)
  - for Hi Low Close types 3*num_sets data arrays are expected
  - for COMBO types an extra data array (last arg) is expected
  - for others num_sets data arrays are expected

  x label array (arg 6) (and all arrays passed): are expected to have
  num_points (arg 5) elements
  x label array (arg 6) is an array of pointers, not an array of
  character arrays:     char    *xlbl[ num_points ];
               NOT:     char    xlbl[ num_points ][ 4 ];

- Setting colors
  a single color can be set for all plotted data: GDC_PlotColor
  a separate color can be set for each SET of data: GDC_SetColor
    pointer to an array of num_sets is expected
  a separate color can be set for each plot point: GDC_ExtColor
    pointer to an array of num_sets x num_points is expected

  Note: a maximum of 256 colors is allowed.
  Also: if too many colors or 'off' colors are used,
        viewers (e.g., browsers) will render them with varying results
         (mosaic and xv seem to do the best job, MS IE seems to do the worst)


Known Problems 
--------------
  - Slice labels can overwite each other, if slices are relatively small.
  - Stacked 3D charts plotting negative values
    (most charting packages can't handle this.)
  - If Y labels are displayed as fractions,
    precision greater than 1/256 is not possible.
  - Y label values aren't scaled - can handle ~1/64 <= X <= ~10,000,000
     Any potential y-label value can be set
     in gdchart.c in the 'y labels intervals' section
      add/delete/change elements in the ypoints[] array
      (be sure values are in ascending order)
    Scaling of values may be an option in a future release.
    GDC_requested_y options address most of these problems
  - Lib is not thread safe. Could easily be made so, if really needed. 
    This is due mainly to the use of the global options.
  - Scaling and centering of background images may be off, when
    the image is of a different size than the chart gif
  - under some circumstances charts with less than 3 plot points may
    not be scaled correctly
  - PIE slices that are proprtionally very small, made cause improper flood-fills


COPYRIGHT NOTICES:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Permission has been granted to copy, distribute and modify GDChart in
| any context without fee, including a commercial application, provided
| that this notice is present in user-accessible supporting documentation.
|
| This does not affect your ownership of the derived work itself, and the
| intent is to assure proper credit for the authors of GDChart, not to
| interfere with your productive use of GDChart. If you have questions,
| ask. "Derived works" includes all programs that utilize the library.
| Credit must be given in user-accessible documentation.
|
| This software is provided "AS IS." The copyright holders disclaim all
| warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to
| implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular
| purpose, with respect to this code and accompanying documentation.
| Copyright.  Bruce Verderaime.  1998-2004
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
IOW: Use it.  Don't plagiarize it!


Any bugs, questions, problems, comments please contact me
brv@fred.net
http://www.fred.net/brv/chart/

GDChart 0.11.5 now can produce GIFs per GD 2.0.28.