# ngsconvert man-page

    SCONVERT(1)							   SCONVERT(1)

    NAME
           sconvert - convert spice formats

    SYNOPSIS
           sconvert fromtype fromfile totype tofile
           sconvert fromtype totype
           sconvert

    DESCRIPTION
           Sconvert	 translates  spice  output  files among three formats: the old
           binary format, a new binary format, and a new ascii format.   The  for-
           mats  are  specified  by the fromtype and totype arguments: â€˜oâ€™ for the
           old format, â€˜bâ€™ for the new binary format, and â€˜aâ€™ for  the  new	 ascii
           format.	Fromtype specifies the format to be read, and totype specifies
           the format to be written.  If fromfile and tofile are given, then  they
           are  used  as the input and output, otherwise standard input and output
           are used.  (Note that this second option is only available on UNIX sys-
           tems  - on VMS and other systems you must supply the filenames.)	 If no
           arguments are given, the parameters are prompted for.

           Binary format is the preferred format for general use,  as  it  is  the
           most  economical	 in  terms  of space and speed of access, and ascii is
           provided to make it easy to modify data files and transfer them between
           machines with different floating-point formats.	The old format is pro-
           vided only for backward compatibility. The three formats	 are  as  fol-
           lows:

           Old:

    		What	      Size in Bytes

    	    title		     80
    	    date		8
    	    time		8
    	    numoutputs		     2
    	    the integer 4	     2
    	    variable names --
    		 char[numoutputs][8] numoutputs * 8
    	    types of output		  numoutputs * 2
    	    node index		     numoutputs * 2
    	    plot title		     numoutputs * 24
    	    the actual data		  numpoints * numoutputs * 8

           Ascii:

    	    Title: Title Card String
    	    Date: Date
    	    [ Plotname: Plot Name
    	      Flags: complex or real
    	      No. Variables: numoutputs
    	      No. Points: numpoints
    	      Command: nutmeg command
    	      Variables:   0 varname1 typename1
    		      1 varname2 typename2
    		      etc...
    	      Values:
    		0     n	   n	n    n	  ...
    		1     n	   n	n    n	  ...
    		And so forth...
    	    ] repeated one or more times

           If one of the flags is complex, the points look like r,i where r and i
           are floating point (in %e format). Otherwise they are in %e format.
           Only one of real and complex should appear.

           The lines are guaranteed to be less than 80 columns wide (unless the
           plot title or variable names are very long), so this format is safe
           to mail between systems like CMS.

           Any number of Command: lines may appear between the No. Points:
           and the Variables: lines, and whenever the plot is loaded into
           nutmeg they will be executed.

           Binary:

    	    Title Card		  (a NULL terminated string)
    	    Date, Time		  (a NULL terminated string)
    	    [
    	      Plot title	  (a NULL terminated string)
    	      Number of variables   (an int)
    	      Number of data points (an int)
    	      flags	     (a short)
    	      variable header struct (repeated numoutputs times)
    		 variable name	  (a NULL terminated string)
    		 variable type	  (an int)
    	      set of outputs	  (repeated numpoints times)
    	    ] repeated one or more times.

           A set of outputs is a vector of doubles of length numoutputs, or
           a vector of real-imaginary pairs of doubles if the data is complex.

    SEE ALSO
           nutmeg(1), spice(1), writedata(3)

    AUTHOR
           Wayne Christopher (faustus@cad.berkeley.edu)

    BUGS
           If  variable  names  and	 the  title and plotname strings have trailing
           blanks in them they will be stripped off when the file is read,	if  it
           is in ascii format.

           If  a plot title begins with "Title:" nutmeg will be fooled into think-
           ing that this is an ascii format file.  Sconvert	 always	 requires  the
           type to be specified, however.

    4th Berkeley Distribution	 20 March 1986			   SCONVERT(1)