This directory contains supplementary documentation on GNU pic2plot.
`pic2plot' is a translator from the pic language to numerous graphics
formats such as X11, PS/EPS, PCL 5, PNM, GIF, Tektronix, and to editable
formats such as idraw, xfig, and Illustrator.

The pic language makes it easy to create and modify box-and-arrow diagrams
of the kind frequently found in technical papers and textbooks.  It was
originally designed to be translated to the troff text-processing language,
so that diagrams could be interspersed with text.  The utility program
`pic', the GNU version of which is `gpic', can perform this translation.
It is usually invoked on the command line by doing `groff -p', where
`groff' is the GNU version of the troff text-processing utility.  `gpic'
can also translate pic diagrams to TeX macros, for inclusion in a TeX
document.

`pic2plot' provides a third alternative.  By using `pic2plot', you may
translate diagrams, written in the pic language, directly to graphics
formats.

In this directory, the file pic0.ps is Brian Kernighan's original Bell Labs
technical report on the pic language.  The file pic1.ps is Eric Raymond's
report "Making Pictures with GNU pic", which contains additional details.
Neither of these mentions `pic2plot', however.

The documentation file picmacros.ps was contributed by W. Richard Stevens
<rstevens@kohala.com>; see http://www.kohala.com/~rstevens .  The file
shows how pic macros may be used to draw diagrams.  The diagrams are taken
from his books on programming and network programming, such as `TCP/IP
Illustrated' (Addison-Wesley, 1994).  The macros themselves, which are
"work in progress", are defined in the file macros.pic.
