
Copyright 1992,1994,1995 Shamim P. Mohamed
This file is part of the plotfoil package, which is freely redistributable
under the terms of the Gnu Public License Version 2.

This is the "plotfoil" package for plotting airfoil sections from data.
This is not shareware. You don't have to pay me anything to use this
program.  (But if you do send me money or gifts, I won't complain!) You can
give this to your friends -- in fact, I encourage you to. However, it is not
in the public domain; it is copyrighted. Read on for a summary of terms of
copying and redistribution. If you like this program, please send me a nice
picture postcard.

Plotfoil generates PostScript, does interpolation, spars, templates and
allowances for sheeting.  For more info on the formats supported and
options, see the comments in plotfoil.man.  The PostScript generated is
quite vanilla, and should print on any printer. Some printers may run out of
memory trying to print multi-page plots with lots of data. In this case you
have to find another printer or try removing some of the input data.

The PostScript is sent to standard output. Use redirection or a pipe to send
it to the printer.

This program runs on all the Unix-ish platforms I've tried, i.e. Sun3, Sun4
(SparcStation 1, 1+, 2, LSC, SLX), i486/Linux, SGI (personal Iris and 4D
systems), NeXT, Sequent Symmetry, VAX/BSD, DecStation/Ultrix. It also runs
on MS-DOS (AT, PS/2 50, 70, 80; MS C compiler, Turbo C++) and VMS (VAX,
DEC4000). It has worked on the following printers: Apple LaserWriters (Plus,
II and NTX), NEC LC890, LC890XL, HP LaserJet, QMS PS2000 and PS2200,
NeWSprint/SPARCprinter, DEC LN03 Scriptprinter, and ghostscript driving a
whole bunch of other printers -- the HP LaserJet and DeskJet series, Apple
Imagewriter etc. Ghostscript has no trouble and can drive numerous non-PS
printers.

Please send any changes, additions, modifications etc. to me. This program
is freely redistributable under the terms of the Gnu Public License. You may
give it away or even sell it, but you cannot restrict what your customers
may do with it - redistribute it, or even re-sell it. If you make a program
based on this one, or using code from this one, and redistribute it in any
way, the same conditions will apply to that program. If you do redistribute
this program (or any program derived from this one) in any way, you also
have to make the source code freely available, and all copyright notices
must remain intact.

For more details, see the file COPYING, which describes the Gnu Public License.

(The airfoil data are not covered by this license; they are in the public
domain.)


Plotfoil is dedicated to L. Peter Deutsch for writing ghostscript, Linus
Torvalds and the rest of the Linux team, and Richard Stallman for starting
the Free Software Foundation.


			      *** Changes ***
3.0 -> 3.1	6/95
 - the -a option to turn sections
 - bug fixes:
   NACA format not handled; missing &yy in read_foil()
   plot() called with incorrect arguments from ui.c, breaking interactive mode
   fixed up some bogus prototypes

2.3 -> 3.0	12/94
 - rewrite and code reorganisation (for ANSI compliance)
 - the postscript is now Adobe DSC compliant, with EPSF for single page plots
 - interactive specification of parameters
 - fine-tuning the placement on the page
 - addition of airfoil modification programs:
      editfoil to change camber and thickness
      mixfoil to blend 2 airfoil sections
 - 2.3 bug fixes
 - addition of new airfoil data from Michael Selig's airfoil data WWW site

2.2 -> 2.3
 - cleaned up the postscript for sheeting - no line outside the airfoil
   outline any more
 - cleaned up spars - now they join up cleanly to the plot line
 - displaced image slightly to account for HP laserjets

2.1 -> 2.2
 - bug fix for too many points
 - fixed the multiple sheet thing to do sections deeper than 7" (In 2.1 the
   multiple thing would only do arbitrary chords, and clip the plot to one row
   of plots. In R/C applications this didn't matter since sections are rarely
   deeper than 7".)

2.0 -> 2.1
 - bug fix in units (re-done)
 - spar and template drawing

1.1 beta -> 2.0:
 - multiple page plots
 - improve interpolation
 - uniform options
 - units for options

On another topic, what do you think of the practice of granting patents on
software? Send me email.

===============================================================================
Shamim Mohamed
shamim@math.isu.edu

Dept. of Mathematics
Idaho State University, Box 8085
Pocatello, ID 83209-8085

Voice: +1 208 236 4472

