Mac OS X for Unix Geeks

AquaTerm

The X Window System is useful to Unix developers and users, since many Unix-based software packages depend on the X11 libraries. An interesting project that in some cases eliminates the need for the X windows is the BSD-licensed AquaTerm application, developed by Per Persson ( http://aquaterm.sourceforge.net). AquaTerm is a Cocoa application that can display vector graphics in an X11-like fashion. It does not replace X11, but it is useful for applications that need to generate plots and graphs.

The output graphics formats that AquaTerm supports are PDF and EPS. Applications communicate with AquaTerm through an adapter that acts as an intermediary between your old application’s API and AquaTerm’s API.

At the time of this writing, AquaTerm has are adapters for gnuplot and PGPLOT , as well as example adapters in C, FORTRAN, and Objective-C. For example, assuming that you have installed both XFree86 and AquaTerm, you can build gnuplot (http://www.gnuplot.info) so that graphics can be displayed either in X windows or in AquaTerm windows.

There is extensive documentation on AquaTerm’s web site (listed earlier in this section). Consult that site for the latest developments, examples, and other documentation.