Getting Started

To run a demonstration script press the button marked ``File...;SPMquot; and select the demo. script you want to run. (This requires that you copied the entire Robot distribution including the demonstration scripts).

To use the program in its simplest mode the commands:

verbatim1#
are required, where ``filename;SPMquot; is the name of your data file. The basic format of the input file is:
verbatim2#
You need not use all columns and if your columns are not in this order you can tell ROBOT about this using the ``TABLE'' command (see next section). Data can be integer or real (but real*8 may give problems). Values may be separated using spaces, tabs and/or commas.

If the GOPLOT command is given ROBOT automatically plots the points using error bars, adds axes with labels and adds the titles for the axes specified in the input file. To tailor the graph to your specific requirements you can add extra commands.

The program makes calls a plotting package based on one called ``ARK'' which in turn is based on the MSSL plotting package (described in separate documentation). I have also made some use of algorithms based on Bevington and ``Numerical Recipes;SPMquot; routines.

It is easy to add new commands to ROBOT so the author will welcome any suggestions for additions. At the end of this document are several examples of the use of ROBOT.

If you publish a paper which makes use of ROBOT I'd very much appreciate it if you could send me a reprint of your paper.