                   Preface to Version 7.4

This manual  describes  the  data  plotting  library  DISLIN 
written in the programming languages Fortran and C. The name
DISLIN is an abbreviation  for  Device-Independent  Software
LINdau since applications  were designed to run on different
computer systems without  any changes.  The library contains
subroutines and functions for displaying data graphically as
curves, bar graphs, pie charts,  3-D colour plots, surfaces,
contours and maps.

DISLIN is intended to be a powerful and easy to use software
package for programmers and scientists that does not require
knowledge of hardware features of  output devices.  The rou-
tines in the graphics library are the result  of my own work
on many projects with different computers and many  plotting
packages.  There are  only a few  graphics  routines  with a
short parameter list needed to display the desired graphical
output.  A large variety  of parameter setting  routines can
then be called to create individually customized graphics.

Since the first version of DISLIN was released in Dec. 1986,
many changes and corrections have been made and new features
and standards have been added  to the  software. Some of the
new features are elementary image routines, a graphical user
interface, filled contour lines, flat and smooth shaded sur-
and a C interface for reading binary data from  Fortran pro-
grams.  DISLIN supports now several hardware platforms, ope-
rating systems and compilers.  A real Fortran 90  library is
available for most Fortran 90 compilers.

Although nearly all  the routines and utilities of the soft-
ware package are written  by myself, DISLIN  would  not have
been possible  without the help of many people. I would like
to thank  several people at  the Max-Planck-Institut in Lin-
dau. First, Dr. W. Degenhardt, Dr. H. J. Mueller and  Dr. I.
Pardowitz who gave their  friendly  assistance.  To all  the
users of DISLIN, I am grateful for your helpful  suggestions
and comments.  I would especially  like to thank the members
of the computer center, Friederich Both, Terry Ho,  Godehard
Monecke and Michael Bruns  for their co-operation.  Finally,
I am grateful to Linda See and Erika Eschebach who corrected
the English  and German  manuals with great carefulness.  To
all of them, my sincere thanks.

H. Michels                               Lindau,  15.10.2000
