computer science

Grace (plotting tool)

Grace (plotting tool) is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Grace (plotting tool) rather than just read about it. In short: Grace is a free WYSIWYG 2D graph plotting tool, for Unix-like operating systems. The package name stands for "GRaphing, Advanced Computation and Exploration of data." Grace uses the X Window System and Motif for its GUI.

Key takeaways

Grace (plotting tool) belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Grace (plotting tool) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Grace (plotting tool) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Grace is a free WYSIWYG 2D graph plotting tool, for Unix-like operating systems. The package name stands for "GRaphing, Advanced Computation and Exploration of data." Grace uses the X Window System and Motif for its GUI. It has been ported to VMS, OS/2, and Windows 9*/NT/2000/XP (on Cygwin). In 1996, Linux Journal described Xmgr (an early name for Grace) as one of the two most prominent graphing packages for Linux.

History Grace is a descendant of the ACE/gr plotting tool (also known as Xvgr), based on Xview libraries from OpenWindows. Xvgr was originally written by Paul Turner of Portland, Oregon, who continued development until version 4.00. In 1996, development was taken over by the ACE/gr development team, led by Evgeny Stambulchik at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Development of Xmgr was frozen at version 4.1.2 in 1998 and the Grace project was started as a fork, released under the GPL. The name stands for "GRaphing, Advanced Computation and Exploration of data" or "Grace Revamps ACE/gr" Turner still maintains a non-public version of Xmgr for internal use. The first version of Grace was numbered 5.0.0 and the latest stable version, 5.1.25 (released February 2015). Whether the development of the next major release 6.0.0 is still in progress is unclear. The latest preview versions numbered 5.99.* were released in 2007.

Currently maintained versions Noteworthy alternate versions of Grace include GraceGTK, forked from Grace 5.1.22 in 2009 by Patrick Vincent, and QtGrace, released in 2011 by Andreas Winter.

Both of these versions of Grace work natively on Windows operating systems and had releases in 2022.

Features Grace can be used from a point-and-click interface or scripted (using either the built-in programming language or a number of language bindings). It performs both linear and nonlinear least-squares fitting to arbitrarily complex user-defined functions, with or without constraints. Other analysis tools include FFT, integration and differentiation, splines, interpolation, and smoothing.

Programs using Grace GROMACS MOLPRO NAMD Visual Molecular Dynamics AptPlot

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Grace (plotting tool)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Grace (plotting tool) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Grace (plotting tool) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Grace (plotting tool) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Grace (plotting tool)

In research: Grace (plotting tool) appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Grace (plotting tool) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Grace (plotting tool) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Free plotting software, Plotting software, Software that uses Motif (software), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Grace (plotting tool) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Grace (plotting tool) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Grace (plotting tool) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Grace (plotting tool) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Grace (plotting tool) in simple terms?

Why does Grace (plotting tool) matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Grace (plotting tool)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Grace (plotting tool).