Editing Grace (plotting tool)

{{Short description|2D graph plotting software}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox software
 | name                   = Grace
 | logo                   =
 | screenshot             = Grace-screenshot.png
 | screenshot size        = 250px
 | caption                = Preview of Grace-6, showing the Fourier transform dialogue
 | collapsible            =
 | author                 = Paul Turner (Xmgr)<br />Evgeny Stambulchik (Grace)
 | developer              = Grace Development Team
 | released               = 1991 (Xmgr)<br />1998 (Grace)<!-- {{Start date|df=yes|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
 | discontinued           =
 | latest release version = 5.1.25
 | latest release date    = {{Start date and age|df=yes|2015|02|14}}
 | latest preview version = 5.99.1dev5
 | latest preview date    = {{Start date and age|df=yes|2007|05|07}}
 | programming language   = [[C (programming language)|C]]
 | operating system       = Any [[Unix-like]]
 | platform               =
 | size                   =
 | language               = [[English language|English]]
 | genre                  = [[Plot (graphics)|Plotting]]
 | license                = [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]
 | website                = {{URL|http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/}}
}}
'''Grace''' is a [[free software|free]] [[WYSIWYG]] 2D graph plotting tool, for [[Unix-like]] [[operating system]]s. The package name stands for "GRaphing, Advanced Computation and Exploration of data." Grace uses the [[X Window System]] and [[Motif (software)|Motif]] for its GUI. It has been ported to [[OpenVMS|VMS]], [[OS/2]], and [[Microsoft Windows|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]].<ref name = "linux-journal-1996">
{{citation
 | title = Graphing with Gnuplot and Xmgr
 | url = http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1218
 | last = Vaught
 | first = Andy
 | date = 1996-08-01
 | accessdate = 2009-06-19
 | magazine = [[Linux Journal]]
}}</ref>

==History==
Grace is a descendant of the ACE/gr plotting tool (also known as Xvgr), based on Xview libraries from OpenWindows.<ref name="plasma-gate-grace">
{{citation
 | last = Stambulchik
 | first = Evgeny
 | date = 1998–2000
 | accessdate = 2009-06-20
 | title = Grace
 | url = http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/
}}</ref> Xvgr was originally written by Paul Turner of Portland, Oregon,<ref name = "plasma-gate-xmgr">
{{citation
 | last = Stambulchik
 | first = Evgeny
 | year = 1997
 | accessdate = 2009-06-20
 | title = Xmgr
 | url = http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Xmgr
}}</ref> who continued development until version 4.00.<ref name = "plasma-gate-xmgr-doc-changes">
{{citation
 | author = Paul J Turner and ACE/gr development team
 | date = 1998-05-13
 | accessdate = 2009-06-20
 | title = Xmgr: List of changes
 | url = http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Xmgr/doc/CHANGES.html
}}</ref> In 1996, development was taken over by the ACE/gr development team, led by Evgeny Stambulchik at the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]], [[Israel]].<ref name = "plasma-gate-xmgr-doc-intro">
{{citation
 | author = ACE/gr development team
 | date = 1998-05-10
 | accessdate = 2009-06-20
 | title = Xmgr user guide: introduction
 | url = http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Xmgr/doc/intro.html#copyright
}}</ref><ref name = "plasma-gate-grace-userguide">
{{citation
 | author = Grace development team
 | date = 2008-09-20
 | url = http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/doc/UsersGuide.html#ss1.1
 | title = Grace user guide: "What is Grace?"
 | accessdate = 2009-06-20
}}</ref> Development of Xmgr was frozen at version 4.1.2 in 1998<ref name = "plasma-gate-xmgr" /> and the Grace project was started as a [[fork (software development)|fork]], released under the [[GNU General Public License|GPL]].<ref name = "grace-copyright-notice">
{{citation
 | author = Grace development team
 | date = 2008-05-21
 | url = http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/COPYRIGHT.html
 | title = Grace copyright notice
 | accessdate = 2009-06-20
}}</ref> The name stands for "GRaphing, Advanced Computation and Exploration of data" or "Grace Revamps ACE/gr"<ref name = "plasma-gate-grace-userguide" /> Turner still maintains a non-public version of Xmgr for internal use.<ref name = "plasma-gate-grace-userguide" /> The first version of Grace was numbered 5.0.0 and the latest stable version, 5.1.25 (released February 2015).<ref name="plasma-gate-grace" /> 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.<ref name="plasma-gate-grace-devel-roadmap-6">
{{citation
 | author = Grace development team
 | date = 2006-05-08
 | url = http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/devel/roadmap-6.html
 | accessdate = 2009-06-20
 | title = Grace-6 Roadmap
}}</ref>

==Currently maintained versions==

Noteworthy alternate versions of Grace include '''GraceGTK''', forked from Grace 5.1.22 in 2009 by Patrick Vincent,<ref name = "gracegtk-overview">
{{citation
 | author = GraceGTK development team
 | publisher=[[SourceForge]]
 | date = 2018-05-25
 | url = https://sourceforge.net/p/gracegtk/home/gracegtk/
 | title = GraceGTK
 | accessdate = 2018-07-02
}}</ref> and '''QtGrace''', released in 2011 by Andreas Winter.
<ref>{{cite web |last1=Winter |first1=Andreas |title=QtGrace |url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/qtgrace/ |accessdate=14 November 2018}}</ref>
Both of these versions of Grace work natively on [[Microsoft Windows|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 binding]]s). It performs both [[Linear regression|linear]] and [[Nonlinear regression|nonlinear]] [[least-squares]] fitting to arbitrarily complex user-defined functions, with or without constraints. Other analysis tools include [[Fast Fourier transform|FFT]], [[Integral|integration]] and [[derivative|differentiation]], [[spline (mathematics)|splines]], [[interpolation]], and smoothing.<ref>{{cite web|title=Grace at NERSC |url=http://www.nersc.gov/users/software/vis-analytics/grace/ |publisher=NERSC |accessdate=15 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224204701/http://www.nersc.gov/users/software/vis-analytics/grace/ |archivedate=24 February 2013 }}</ref>

==Programs using Grace==
* [[GROMACS]]
* [[MOLPRO]]
* [[NAMD]]
* [[Visual Molecular Dynamics]]
* [[AptPlot]]

==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
* [[List of graphing software]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/ Grace Home page]
* [http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Xmgr/ ACE/gr Home page]
* [http://qtgrace.sourceforge.net/ QtGrace Home page]
* [http://graceGTK.sourceforge.net/ GraceGTK Home page]

[[Category:Free plotting software]]
[[Category:Plotting software]]
[[Category:Software that uses Motif (software)]]
[[Category:X Window programs]]