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Other useful software

    WAVE makes extensive use of the DB Software Package, available from the same sources as WAVE itself (http://ecg.mit.edu). The DB Software Package includes calibrate, dbcollate, dbdesc, dbwhich, mrgann, plot2d, pschart, psfd, rdann, rdsamp, sample, snip, sqrs, tach, wrann, wrsamp, and xform (among many other applications). The package also includes the DB library of interface functions for user-written applications that read and write signal and annotation files in the formats supported by WAVE.

  A web browser, though not a necessity for everyone who uses WAVE, should be part of your software toolbox. If you use link annotations, you will need a browser in order to follow the links to the external data. Even if you don't anticipate using link annotations, you can still use a web browser to view the on-line version of this guide. Netscape is an attractive choice because of its simple remote-control interface, among other reasons. As noted earlier, free copies of Netscape for academic use or for evaluation purposes may be obtained by anonymous FTP from ftp.netscape.com).

   An X-Y plotting program capable of being run from the command line is another nearly essential tool. A suitable program should be able to accept multicolumn text input, allowing specification of which columns to plot from the command line (so that it can be driven by WAVE). Avoid commercial software designed for business graphics with arbitrary (often very low) limits on the number of points that can be plotted. If you expect to prepare plots for publication, avoid packages that only provide screen dumps; any decent plotting program should be able to generate plots at the resolution of your printer. plot2d (included in the DB Software Package) is a bare-bones command-line front end to gnuplot, a fairly capable interactive plotting program that is included in most Linux distributions, and is also available by anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu and numerous other sites. An interesting alternative is xvgr, available from ftp.teleport.com/pub/users/pturner/acegr and in most Linux distributions. WAVE and xvgr use the same Open Look/XView user interface.


next up previous contents index
Next: Setting up a WAVE host Up: System Requirements for WAVE Previous: About Linux

George B. Moody (george@hstbme.mit.edu)
Wed May 7 20:21:25 EDT 1997