VossPlot (Springer-Verlag, 拢22.91, ISBN 3 540 14215 0) is the commercial launch of an illustration program developed inhouse at IBM for more than ten years. Described as 鈥渁 software tool for scientific and technical graphics鈥�, it is a compiler for the graphics language UGH (Universal Graphics Handler) and converts ASCII programs into .ugh colour images for plotting or piping to standard graphics files. In short, it鈥檚 like working on raw TeX or PostScript 鈥� except that UGH is tailored to drawing scientific graphs. Beyond simple axis, grid and point commands, UGH can read in data lists, calculate averages, plot mathematical functions and spline curves, and perform many other page layout tasks.
Some programming knowledge helps, since the interface and syntax 鈥� 鈥渦-uim fn 1 fn 2 鈥� option 1 option 2鈥� 鈥� are a little dry. And, if you get stuck, you have no support beyond the manual and the many examples. But overall, VossPlot comes across as an effective and inexpensive system for creating polished diagrams for papers or reports. It will run on all but the most primitive PCs, under DOS, or OS/2.