We will be graphing data collected by Python programs. To
do that we have a simple program called XGraph.
To install it follow these steps.
1) Download it from here: http://halverscience.net/XGraph4.30_for_OSX_10.8.zip
(This version works well with our older Mac
computers.)
2) Double-click the file to unpack it. It will create a
folder called “XGraph4.30_MacOSX”
3) Rename it to just “XGraph”
4) Move it (drag it with your mouse) to your home folder.
(To go to your home folder, click the desktop, then “Go” at
the top, then “Home”)
5) Start the Terminal.
6) In the terminal, type edit .profile
7) Text Wrangler will start. Paste in these two lines of
code:
alias
xgraph=/Users/your_user_name/XGraph/bin/xgraph
export xgraph
“your_user_name” is the name of your home foilder. For my
1st period students, it will be “p1”. For 2nd period it
will be “p2” and so on.
Save the file.
8) In the terminal, you must give the .profile file
execution privileges. Do that by typing
chmod 755 .profile
9) Quit the terminal and run it again. (This is
needed to make the .profile code run.)
10) Test the graphing program b doing this:
cd XGraph
xgraph testxy.dat
You should see an interesting demo graph.
11) Take a look at testxy.dat to see how it works. To do
that use the command edit testxy.dat.
12) To use XGraph on other computers and to find out all
the nice things it can do go here: http://www.xgraph.org/
