SpecTcl-3.2 new features

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• The new fit command allows users to produce fits of regions of interest on spectra. The fit command comes with the capability to produce linear fits. The set of fit types the fit command can produce is extensible. Extending the fit types supported by the command is described in the Guide to extending the SpecTcl fitting system which is part of the SpecTcl Programmer's guide. Note that Xamine button support added this version allows you to write software to accept fit limits graphically through Xamine.
• Xamine's capability to allow the client (SpecTcl) to display client buttons is now formally supported. This capability allows SpecTcl application programs to create GUI elements that are processed by Xamine and result in button messages to SpecTcl. This allows you to create buttons that can accept point on spectra as well as other GUI elements. Xamine's capabilities for client butttons and how to use them in SpecTcl code are described in SpecTcl's interface to Xamine Client buttons. That page is part of the SpecTcl Programmer's guide.
• Closely related to Xamine button handling is the ability to define function objects that will be invoked if Xamine had to be restarted. A typical use of this would be to recreate an application specific Xamine client button box if Xamine is restarted. This capability is described in Writing Xamine Restart Handlers which is part of the SpecTcl Programmer's guide.
• SpecTcl 3.2 defines two new spectrum types. These are both multiply incremented 2-d spectra. The first, type m2 is intended to behave much like any other 2d spectrum except that several ordered pairs of parameters can be incremeneted. The second gd (gamma deluxe), has increment semantics like a 2-d gamma spectrum except that the parameters of the x and y axes can be independently specified. The documentation of the spectrum command describes these spectrum types and how to create them.
• A plugin to support reading and writing Radware spectra has been added. This is described in The Radware Spectrum I/O plugin. This plugin uses portions of the Radware gamma ray data analysis software written by David Radford. This software is redistributed with SpecTcl by permission of the author.
• SpecTcl now supports dynamically loadable C++ plugins. These plugins, and how to write them, are described in The guide to writing SpecTcl plugin software.
• The new variable NoPromptForNewGui can be defined in the SpecTclInit.tcl file to inhibit asking the user if they want to try out the new gui in the event you start the old tree parameter GUI.
• In many analysis software packages a Super Event is an event that contains subevents that should each be treated as a single event. This is useful, for example in handling a block mode data acquisition interface. To handle superevents, SpecTcl must be able to get the analysis framework to advance the event pointer but not necessarily increment the number of events analyzed in an event buffer. This is now supported and described in SpecTcl and Super Events in the SpecTcl Programmer's guide.
• A Tcl splash screen package written by Emmanuel Frecon at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science has been incorporated and redistributed with SpecTcl under the terms of its license. The current SpectclRC.tcl files produce a splash/progress screen that allows the user to track SpecTcl's initialization. SpecTcl splash screens in the SpecTcl Programmer's guide describes how to generate splash screens and how to tailor the SpecTcl splash screen image.