kst (software)

Kst is a plotting and data viewing program. It is a general purpose plotting software program that evolved out of a need to visualize and analyze astronomical data, but has also found subsequent use in the real time display of graphical information. Kst is a KDE application and is freely available for anyone to download and use under the terms of the GPL. It is noted for being able to graph real-time data acquisition.

Kst
Original author(s)Barth Netterfield[1]
Developer(s)
  • George Staikos[1]
  • Andrew Walker[1]
Repositorygithub.com/Kst-plot/kst
Operating system
  • Linux
  • Mac
  • Windows using MinGW
TypeGraph plotting software
LicenseGPL[1]
Websitekst-plot.kde.org

History

Kst was initially developed by Barth Netterfield, an astrophysicist as a personal project. By 2004 it had begun to be used in various universities and the European Space Agency and development was funded by the Canadian Space Agency.[1] Kst is written in C++ and based upon (but does not use) the Tk toolkit.[2] It is targeted towards large (million element) data sets.[3]

Features

kst is a fast real-time large-dataset plotting and viewing tool with basic data analysis functionality.[4][5][6]

Plot types

kst is able to plot histograms and 3-D with color and contour mapping for 3-D images.[7] It is also able to process Network Common Data Form (NETCDF) files for 2-d plotting[8]

Real-time plotting capability

Kst has been chosen where there is a need to present plots in real-time.[9]

Applications

Real-time applications vary in size from simple graphing of a sensor from a microcontroller such as arduino that may be set up by a hobbyist to a simple sensor[4] to plotting of real time date from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope.[10] The program has been recommended for real time graphical display of an open energy monitoring project.[11][12]

Inputs

Kst is able to accept a number input formats with Dirfiles being particularly suitable for streaming applications[10][13] and plug-in extension filters enabling other input stream types and file formats to be added.[7]

Scripting language

The tool offers a scripting language, termed KstScript based upon JavaScript syntax which can help automate workflows.[7]

Alternatives

Some alternatives include MATLAB, Qtiplot, SciDAVis, Grace and LabPlot.[6] However, some of these are part of a numerical analysis package.[6]

Spin-off developments

Dirfile format

In the process of developing the kst application a spin-off was the emergence of the Dirfile file format standard for time-ordered binary data in an efficient manner.[lower-alpha 1] It was developed under the Getdata project into an independent standard with its own API.[13]

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. The records in files are timestamped and ordered in time of occurrence

References
  1. "Interview with Barth Netterfield about kst". TomChance.org. Archived from the original on 21 May 2004. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  2. Zonca, Andrea (22 January 2009). "5. Combined quick look analysis". Advanced modelling and combined data analysis of Planck focal plane instruments (PhD). University of Milan. arXiv:1208.1950. hdl:2434/64581.
  3. "Canadian LFI Work". www.astro.ubc.ca. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  4. Reilly, Rob (August 2010). "Linux Journal" (PDF). No. 196. pp. 62−67. Real-Time Plots with kst and a microcontroller. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 April 2019. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  5. Årzén, Karl-Erik; Faure, Pascal; Fohler, Gerhard; Mattavelli, Marco; Neundorf, Alexander; Romero, Vanessa; Schorr, Stefan (29 January 2011). "D1f - Interface Specification" (PDF). pp. 41–42. Appendix B - The Kst Real-Time Plotting and Data Viewing Interface. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 April 2019.
  6. "Kst - Benchmarks". Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  7. "The Kst Handbook" (PDF). Kst-plot. p. 1. What is Kst?. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 April 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  8. "Software for Manipulating or Displaying NetCDF Data". www.unidata.ucar.edu. Archived from the original on 19 September 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  9. Nowak, Adam; Walkowiak, Przemysław; Szwabe, Andrzej; Misiorek, Pawel (2012). "wnPUT Testbed Experimentation Framework". Distributed Computing and Networking. Lecture notes in Computer Science. Vol. 7129. pp. 377, 379, 381. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-25959-3_27. ISBN 978-3-642-25958-6.
  10. Switzer, E. R.; Allen, C.; Amiri, M.; Appel, J. W.; Battistelli, E. S.; Burger, B.; Chervenak, J. A.; Dahlen, A. J.; Das, S.; Devlin, M. J.; Dicker, S. R.; Doriese, W. B.; Dünner, R.; Essinger-Hileman, T.; Gao, X.; Halpern, M.; Hasselfield, M.; Hilton, G. C.; Hincks, A. D.; Irwin, K. D.; Knotek, S.; Fisher, R. P.; Fowler, J. W.; Jarosik, N.; Kaul, M.; Klein, J.; Lau, J. M.; Limon, M.; Lupton, R. H.; et al. (1 August 2008). "Systems and control software for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope". Proceedings of SPIE. Advanced Software and Control for Astronomy II. 79019: 70192L. Bibcode:2008SPIE.7019E..2LS. doi:10.1117/12.790006. S2CID 12093498.
  11. "Learn | OpenEnergyMonitor". learn.openenergymonitor.org. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  12. "The OpenEnergyMonitor project [LWN.net]". lwn.net. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  13. "The Dirfile Standards". sourceforge.net. Archived from the original on 29 May 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
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