Re: [Phys-L] Help! data analysis and display (graphing) apps.

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 09/02/2012 10:05 AM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
> I must input data multiple columns thousands of rows collected from,
> for example, a photogate, then manipulate (average, find adjacent
> differences, various algebraic functions, etc.) and display.

That's an important clarification of the request.

Since you've got thousands of data points, you should consider the R
language.  It's a free open-source multi-platform re-implementation of 
the S language.  It is verrrry powerful ... but simple things are easy 
to do.  Some examples can be found here:
  http://www.harding.edu/fmccown/r/

If there's something you need to do that you can't do in R, please 
explain in more detail what the problem is.

===========

To answer a slightly different question:  If you had only dozens or
hundreds of data points, and if the graphics requirements were not
super-demanding, I would have suggested using a plain old spreadsheet.
Gnumeric is a free open-source multi-platform spreadsheet that I use 
for a wide range of routine stuff.

===========

At the opposite extreme, for super-demanding applications, I tend to
write c++ programs or perl programs that process the data and write
directly to files ... formatting the output in .svg, .kml, .x3d, or
whatever.  Sometimes brute force has an elegance all its own.