For applications linked with the GKS based AGI library the user should supply a valid GNS device name (SUN/57) which AGI converts into an internal name that locates the workstation structure in the database. For devices that have more than one plotting plane, it is desirable that AGI treat pictures plotted on the different planes as being on the same device, so that plots on the overlay plane can be lined up with plots below them. Database entries for pictures on these different planes, which are different devices in GKS and SGS, will therefore appear in the same AGI workstation structure.
The AGP library is based on native-PGPLOT style device names of the form <devname>/<devtype>. The graphics device to be used is selected by the <devtype> component. The <devname> component before the / will be some form of name used by the device driver (typically a physical device on the system or an output file name) but is often omitted as most drivers contain a sensible default value. For example a graphics device of just /gwm will open a Starlink GWM X11 window with a default window name of xwindows while a complete specification of mywindow/gwm will open a GWM window with the name mywindow.
For native-PGPLOT based applications to co-exist with GKS-based ones it is important that users can continue to supply ``old_style'' GKS device names where these have a sensible translation. Where there IS such a translation the AGI database records must also be made to match. Logic has been incorporated into the AGP library to perform this name translation process. Also in AGP typing a single ? for the device name will list all the possible translations. At the time of writing this document these were:
gif_l (/GIF) GIF-format file, landscape gif_p (/VGIF) GIF-format file, portrait hpgl_l (/HPGL) Hewlett-Packard HP-GL plotters, landscape hpgl_p (/VHPGL) Hewlett-Packard HP-GL plotters, portrait hpgl2 (/HPGL2) Hewlett-Packard graphics language xterm (/XTERM) Tektronix terminal emulator wd_l (/WD) X Window dump file, landscape wd_p (/VWD) X Window dump file, portrait xserve (/XSERVE) PGPLOT X window server tek_4010 (/TEK4010) Tektronix 4006-4010 storage-tube terminal tek_4107 (/TEK4100) Tektronix 4100-series terminals ps_p (/VPS) Postscript printers, monochrome, portrait ps_l (/PS) Postscript printers, monochrome, landscape epsf_p (/VPS) Encapsulated postscript, portrait epsf_l (/PS) Encapsulated postscript, landscape pscol_p (/VCPS) PostScript printers, color, portrait pscol_l (/CPS) PostScript printers, color, landscape epsfcol_p (/VCPS) Colour encapsulated postscript, portrait epsfcol_l (/CPS) Colour encapsulated postscript, landscape xwindows (xwindows/GWM) Starlink GWM xwindow x2windows (xwindows2/GWM) Starlink GWM xwindow x3windows (xwindows3/GWM) Starlink GWM xwindow x4windows (xwindows4/GWM) Starlink GWM xwindow
As an example of the overall effect native-PGPLOT graphics specifications of xwindows/gwm, /gwm or xwindows are all valid and equivalent in the AGP version of the AGI library. They will select a GWM window with name xwindows which will have AGI database records identical to those created by the AGI library routines for the graphics device with the GNS name of xwindows.
The user will still see some slight differences from previous GKS behaviour when using GKS style device names via this scheme. For example:
AGI --- Applications Graphics Interface Library