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Manual for psimpoll and pscomb

Running the programs

Contents

Running psimpoll

On DOS and UNIX, ensure that you are in the same directory as the program (normally psimpoll, then enter psimpoll at the prompt followed by <Enter>. On Macintosh, open the psimpoll folder, and select the psimpoll application. A name for the dataset file is then requested, and must be given. You will see a menu allowing several parameters to be changed. If a filename is included on the command line (psimpoll filename), psimpoll runs with that filename right through without allowing selections from the menu but using a .CFG file, if present without any more attention from the user (unless any menu options that themselves require prompts are set (e.g., K, Ld.3).

psimpoll commands are not generally case-sensitive: `Y' = `y'. Exceptions are the codes used to indicate Troels-Smith symbols and colours: these codes must be given exactly as indicated in the Format of associated files and in psimpoll.COL, respectively. Titles, taxa names, etc, will appear exactly as you enter them (w.r.t. case). However, filenames and operating-system commands (such as those given through menu Ud) must follow operating system conventions and may or may not be case-sensitive: UNIX is, DOS/Windows is not.

In all menus, any program default settings are enclosed within `()', and current settings are enclosed within `[]'. Available menu options are detailed below.

At all menus, you must press <Enter> after the letter or number of your choice. This is a change from versions of psimpoll before 2.00, and makes the program more portable.

psimpoll produces a main PostScript output file with a name that by default is file.PS, where file was the name of the input file, and (after making age-depth transformations) a PostScript file (default name fileAD.PS) that displays the age-depth relationship graphically. These output files are text files and can be easily moved around between computers, including mainframes, and via e-mail. They can also be edited: try looking at an output file with an editor (e.g., non-document mode of WordStar). In order to produce either diagram, an output device with a PostScript interpreter is needed. The output files can be printed from a PC connected to a LaserWriter with the command:

PRINT filename <Enter> (answer COM1 if asked for a `list device')

If running psimpoll on any PC connected to a LaserWriter, the step of producing an output file can be avoided by sending output directly to the LaserWriter. This is done by changing the name of the output file to COM1: see menu Ea.

PostScript files can be printed using the GhostScript and GhostView family of programs on Windows, Apple, and Unix environments (and others).

Running pscomb

As with psimpoll, change to the directory that includes the program, and run it by entering or selecting pscomb [filename1 filename2 ...]. If the filenames are omitted, or cannot be given on the command line (e.g., on Macintosh), the names of input files can also be entered from menu Eb. The program then offers a menu, where several options can be changed, and then reads in filename1, filename2, etc, sequentially until all have been read. The program checks each file to ensure that it is a PostScript file, and that it was written by psimpoll 2.20 or later. Output is directed to a file as for psimpoll, and is in the same format. pscomb output is thus valid pscomb input, and so on, ad infinitum.

The same general comments about menus and production of plotted output apply as for psimpoll (described above).

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Copyright © 1995-2007 K.D. Bennett

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