Installation

Upgrading

Uninstall any previous versions of TPlot and the Misc package. Remove them from your hard drive. Then proceed with installation as outlined below.

Installation:

TPlot requires the Misc package for several utilities. This is now included in the TPlot distribution. If you define GIF, PNG, EXCEL or FUNCTIONS in 'Plot.inc', then you will have to download various third party packages. See the help file for details.

Delphi 1 .. 3:

Are no longer supported.

Delphi 4 .. 7:

open the appropriate project group (eg: TPlot\D7\Plot300.bpg);
I suggest that you set (Tools .. Environment options .. Library) the BPL and DPC output directories to $(DELPHI)\Bin or $(DELPHI)\Projects\Bpl, or some other $(DELPHI) subdirectory;
build the Misc Run-time package (ie: Misc300_Run.bpl = Misc\D7\Misc300_Run.dpk);
build the Misc Design-time package (ie: Misc300_Design.bpl = Misc\D7\Misc300_Design.dpk);
install the Misc Design-time package into the IDE;
build the TPlot Run-time package (ie: Plot300_Run.bpl = TPlot\D7\Plot300_Run.dpk);
build the TPlot Design-time package (ie: Plot300_Design.bpl = TPlot\D7\Plot300_Design.dpk);
install the TPlot Design-time package into the IDE;
If you need database support, then proceed with ...
build the TDBPlot run-time package (ie: DBPlot300_Run.bpl = TPlot\DBPlot300_Run.dpk);
build the TDBPlot design-time package (ie: DBPlot300_Design.bpl = TPlot\DBPlot300_Design.dpk);
install the TDBPlot design-time package into the IDE;

BC++:

Borland C++ is no longer supported - I do not have a modern version of this product. TPlot will probably work in BC++, but you will have to construct the packages and projects yourself.

Kylix:

As per Delphi 4 and 5, but open the files in the TPlot\K3 directory(eg: TPlot/K3/Plot300.bpg). Make sure you have the appropriate file and directory access permissions - open a XTerm, su root, konqueror, then right-click to get the Properties dialog.

Notes:

Its a good idea to place the final packages in your $(DELPHI)\bin or $(DELPHI)\Projects\Bpl directory.
Under Kylix, its also a good idea to install the source in your home directory, then add some useful symlinks.
Under Kylix you will need to give write permissions to all neccessary users if you install the packages in the $(KYLIX)/bin directory.

Cross-platform development

I've found it most useful to place the source on a small FAT drive.
Note that many components have different properties under Delphi and Kylix. This means that when you switch OSs, the dfm files contain invalid stream data. See Cross-Platform Development for more pointers.
Beware case ! Both of file names and units ! Kylix and Unix are case-sensitive !
Delphi uses {$R *.DFM} - this must be changed to {$R *.dfm}.
Use {$IFDEF MSWINDOWS} and {$IFDEF LINUX}, both in code and in your DPR files. See the Normal demo for an example.
HTML is a very good help file format.