The Kst Handbook

The Kst Handbook

Duncan Hanson

Rick Chern

Philip Rodrigues

Barth Netterfield

Yiwen Mao

Zongyi Zhang

Revision 1.10.0 (2010-11-29)

Copyright © 2004 The University of British Columbia

Copyright © 2005 The University of Toronto

Copyright © 2007,2008,2009,2010 The University of British Columbia

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Funding of this project was provided in part by the Canadian Space Agency.

Kst is a data plotting and manipulation program with powerful plugin support.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

What is Kst?

Getting Started

Importing Data
Plot Manipulation
Basic Analysis and the Data Manager

2. Common Tasks

Plotting Simple Graphs
Customizing Plot Settings
Curve Fitting
Generating a Histogram
Creating an Event Monitor
Creating a Power Spectrum

3. Working With Data

Data Objects Overview

The Data Manager
Creating and Deleting Data Objects

Vectors
Curves
Equations
Histograms
Spectrum
Spectrogram
Plugins
Event Monitors
Matrix
Images
Vector View

The Data Wizard
The Data Menu
Data View Mode
Change Data File
Change Data Sample Ranges
Common Icons

Datasources

ASCII
Dirfiles
HEALPix FITS files
QImage
Indirect
CDF
netCDF
LFIIO
WMAP Reader
SCUBA File Reader

4. Working with Views

View Objects Overview

View Object Concepts
The View Manager
Context Menus
Switching among Different Modes

View Object Types

Plots
Annotation Objects
Labels
Boxes / Ellipses
Lines / Arrows
Pictures
Using KstScript to manipulate Annotation objects

Zooming and Scrolling

Mouse Zoom Modes
Zoom Mode Context Menu
The Zoom Menu
The Scroll Menu
Tied Zoom

Manipulating Plot Layout

Moving and Resizing View Objects
Layout Mode Context Menu
Selecting Multiple View Objects and Grouping

Window Tabs
The Toolbar
Assign Curve Color From File
Differentiate Between Curves

5. Saving and Printing

Saving Sessions
Exporting Vectors
Exporting Plot Images
Printing

6. Settings and Logs

Global Settings

General
Data Sources
E-Mail

The Debug Dialog

7. Kst Extensions

The ELOG Extension

Server and Logging Settings
Add an ELOG Entry
ELOG Browser
Using the ELOG Class in KstScript

Running a KstScript
KstScript Examples
More KstScript Documentation

8. Plugins, Fits, and Filters

Managing Plugins

Built-in Plugins

Overview
Using Built-in Plugins

Fit Plugins

Fit any non-linear function
Fit exponential weighted
Fit exponential
Fit Gaussian weighted
Fit Gaussian
Fit gradient weighted
Fit gradient
Fit linear weighted
Fit linear
Fit Lorentz weighted
Fit Lorentz
Fit polynomial weighted
Fit polynomial
Fit sinusoid weighted
Fit sinusoid

Interpolation Plugins

Interpolation Akima spline
Interpolation Akima spline periodic
Interpolation cubic spline
Interpolation cubic spline periodic
Interpolation linear
Interpolation polynomial

Filter Plugins

Generic Filter
Band-pass filter
Band-stop filter
High-pass filter
Low-pass filter
Despike Filter

Signal Processing Plugins

Autocorrelation
Crosscorrelation
Cross Power Spectrum
Convolution
Deconvolution
Periodogram

Calculus Plugins

Cumulative Sum (integral)
Fixed Step Differentiation

Miscellaneous Plugins

Bin
Binned Map
Chop
Convert time
Noise Addition
Normalization (Standard score)
Phase
Reverse
Shift
Statistics
Syncbin

Using Plugins through KstScript

Overview
Examples

9. Licensing

A. Command Line Usage and Examples

Kst Command Line Synopsis - A plotting and data viewing program

B. Creating Additional Plugins

Creating a Basic Plugin

Default Scalar Values

Creating a Data Object Plugin

Creating a “C” Plugin

The XML File
The Shared Object File
Compiling the Plugin

Creating Linear Fit Plugins

Header Files
Implementing Required Functions
Calling the Fitting Functions
Example

Creating Non-linear Fit Plugins

Header Files and Definitions
Implementing Required Functions
Calling the Fitting Functions
Example

Creating Pass Filter Plugins

Header Files
Required Functions
Calling the Filter Function
Example

C. Supporting Additional File Formats

Creating Datasource Readers

The Shared Object
The .desktop File
Compiling and Copying

D. Working with KstScript

KstScript Classes:

Class: Arrow

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: Axis

Methods:
Properties:

Class: AxisLabel

Properties:

Class: AxisTickLabel

Properties:

Class: BinnedMap

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: BorderedViewObject

Properties:

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: Collection

Methods:
Properties:

Class: ColorSequence

Methods:

Class: CrossPowerSpectrum

Methods:
Properties:

Class: Curve

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: CurveCollection

Class: DataMatrix

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: DataObject

Methods:
Properties:

Class: DataObjectCollection

Class: DataSource

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: DataSourceCollection

Class: DataVector

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: Debug

Methods:
Properties:

Class: DebugLog

Properties:

Class: DebugLogEntry

Properties:

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: Document

Methods:
Properties:

Class: Ellipse

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: ELOG

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: Equation

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: EquationCollection

Class: Extension

Methods:
Properties:

Class: ExtensionCollection

Class: File

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: Group

Constructors:
Methods:

Class: Histogram

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: HistogramCollection

Class: Image

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Methods:
Properties:

Class: Label

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: Legend

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: Line

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: Matrix

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: MatrixCollection

Class: Object

Properties:

Class: ObjectCollection

Class: Picture

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: Plot

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: PlotCollection

Class: PlotLabel

Properties:

Class: Plugin

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: PluginCollection

Class: PluginIO

Properties:

Class: PluginIOCollection

Class: PluginManager

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: PluginModule

Properties:

Class: PluginModuleCollection

Class: Point

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: PowerSpectrum

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: PowerSpectrumCollection

Class: Scalar

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: ScalarCollection

Class: Size

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: Spectrogram

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: SpectrogramCollection

Class: String

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: StringCollection

Class: TimeInterpretation

Properties:

Class: Vector

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: VectorCollection

Class: VectorView

Constructors:
Properties:

Class: ViewObject

Methods:
Properties:

Class: ViewObjectCollection

Class: Window

Constructors:
Methods:
Properties:

Class: WindowCollection

E. The Kst DCOP Interface

F. Installation

Obtaining Kst

Installing Kst from Source

Requirements
Optional Libraries and Packages
Compiling and Installing

G. Equation Expressions in Kst

Arithmetic Operators
Logical and Relational Operators

Built-in Functions

Built-in Variables

Built-in Constants

List of Tables

4.1. Date Format in Kst
4.2. LaTeX Commands Supported in Label Text
G.1. Kst Built-in Function
G.2. Kst Built-in Variables
G.3. Kst Built-in Constants

List of Examples

3.1. Example of Using KstScript to Construct a Static Vector
3.2. Example of Using KstScript to Load a Vector from Source Files
3.3. Example of Using KstScript to plot a curve
3.4. Example of Using the Equation Class
3.5. Example of Constructing a Histogram through KstScript
3.6. Example of Using PowerSpectrum Class
3.7. Example of Using the Spectrogram Class
3.8. Example of Using the DataMatrix Class in KstScript
3.9. Example of Using the Matrix Class to construct a Static Matrix
4.1. Example of Using the Plot Class to interpret date format for x Axis
4.2. Function for Creating and Resizing Annotation Objects
7.1. Adding an ELOG entry through KstScript
8.1. KstScript of Statistics Plugin
8.2. KstScript Function of Using Interpolation Plugins

Introduction

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