Every now and then it's nice to stay at home on a weekend -- provided, of course, that I can get work done at home. If I am working over a modem and don't have graphics, I can use textplot to make quick & cheap graphs.
If you just give textplot one argument, it interprets it as y-data and plots it against an assumed x.
IDL> textplot,sin(findgen(100)/10.0)
* ******* ****** ** * * ** ** ** ** ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * ** * * ** ** *******
If you give textplot two arguments, it interprets them as x-data and y-data.
IDL> textplot,sin(findgen(100)/10.0),cos(findgen(100)/10.0)
* * * * * * ** * ** * * * ** ** * ** * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * ** * ** ** ** * ** ** * ** *
Note that the axes are scaled automatically to fill the screen. Like I said, quick and cheap.
This was written by Eric.