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C compiling and linking

The source code for a graphics application written in C, if it is to use libplot, must contain the lines

#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>

The header file plot.h is distributed with libplot, and should have been installed on your system where your C compiler will find it. It contains prototypes for each of the functions in libplot, and some miscellaneous definitions.

In current releases of libplot, the names of all functions begin with the prefix "pl_". For example, the openpl operation is invoked on a Plotter by calling the function pl_openpl. If you wish, you may maintain backward compatibility by also including the header file plotcompat.h. This header file redefines openpl as pl_openpl, and similarly for the other libplot functions.

To link your application with libplot, you would use the appropriate `-l' option(s) on the command line when compiling it. You would use

-lplot -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm

or, in recent releases of the X Window System,

-lplot -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lSM -lICE -lXext -lX11 -lm

(Alternatively, you may need to use `-lplot -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm', `-lplot -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm -lc -lgen', or `-lplot -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm -lc -lPW', on systems that provide Motif widgets instead of Athena widgets. In recent releases of the X Window System, you would insert `-lSM -lICE'. Recent releases of Motif require `-lXp' as well.)

On some platforms, the directories in which libplot or the other libraries are stored must be specified on the command line. For example, the options `-lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lSM -lICE -lXext -lX11', which specify X Window System libraries, may need to be preceded by an option like `-L/usr/X11/lib'.

On most systems libplot is installed as a DLL (dynamically linked library, or `shared' library). This means that the linking with your application will take place at run time rather than compile time. The environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH lists the directories which will be searched for DLL's at run time. For your application to be executable, this environment variable should include the directory in which libplot is stored.


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