Xmgr to Grace migration guide


This is a very brief guide describing problems and workarounds for
reading in project files saved with Xmgr.

0. DOCUMENTATION IS LARGELY NOT UPDATED YET!!!

1. Grace must be explicitly told the version number of the software used
   to create a file. You can either manually put "@version VERSIONID"
   string in the beginning of the file or use the command line switch
   -pexec "version VERSIONID". The VERSIONID is built as 
   MAJOR_REV*10000 + MINOR_REV*100 + PATCHLEVEL; so 40101 corresponds to
   xmgr-4.1.1. In fact, any number should work as far as it corresponds to a
   version below 4.1.2.
   Projects saved with Xmgr-4.1.2 do NOT need the above, since they already
   have the version string in them.

2. The above relates to the ascii projects only. The old binary projects (saved
   with xmgr-4.0.*) are not automatically converted anymore. An input filter
   must be defined to make the conversion work on-the-fly. Add the following
   line to ~/.gracerc or the system-wide $GRACE_HOME/gracerc resource file:
   DEFINE IFILTER "grconvert %s -" MAGIC "00000031"
   See docs for more info on the I/O filters.
   
3. Grace is WYSIWYG. Xmgr was not. Many changes required to achieve the 
   WYSIWYG'ness led to the situation when graphs with objects carefully 
   aligned under Xmgr don't look so under Grace. You'll have to adjust such
   graphs manually. This is the price. In future, probably, Grace will be
   smarter trying to compensate for the differences.

4. Bar charts and Smith plots don't work now. They'll be put back soon.

5. A lot of symbol types (all except *real* symbols) are removed. "Location *"
   types can be replaced (with much higher comfort) by A(nnotating)values.
   "Impulse *", "Histogram *" and "Stair steps *" effects can be achieved
   using the connecting line parameters (Type, Drop lines). "Dot" symbol is
   removed as well; use any other symbol (say, circle) of the minimal (1) size.
   
6. Default page layout switched from free (allowing to resize canvas with
   mouse) to fixed. For the old behaviour, put "PAGE LAYOUT FREE" in the Grace 
   resource file or use the "-free" command line switch.

7. System variables GR_* renamed to GRACE_*

8. A lot of other things changed. I don't have time to describe everything now,
   sorry, but will try to answer questions raised on the mailing list. I will
   NOT answer personal e-mails.