Usage:
	vgp [-n] [-v] [data-file1 data-file2 ...]


First of all:
		THIS PROGRAM REQUIRES MOTIF OR LESSTIF!

What is vgp?

Vector Globe Projection is a tool for engineers, scientists, or anyone
that deals with series of R3 (3-dimensional) vectors.  (A vector of
vectors so to speak.)  The usual case is a set of these n x 3 matrices
with one representing time and the others representing other signals
like momentum or velocity, changing with time.  It could also
represent a partial attitude, by the vector representing e.g. the
Y-axis of the body with respect to an inertia frame.  Throughout this
document I will refer to the series as a time history which is most
usually the case.  vgp displays the entire time history of the vector
as the path it would follow on a sphere.  This time history can be
animated as a vector starting at the center of sphere and pointing
toward the current point.  The current row number of the data is
displayed in the top right corner.

What are the controls?

The left mouse button will rotate the sphere. The right button will
translate the sphere.  The middle mouse button will create a zoom
rectangle that should be dragged around the region of interest and a
zoom-in will occur.  To zoom-out either push the "full size" button or
shift-middle mouse button.  The "start" button will start the
animation.

Data Format:

The data format consists of three space delimited columns of ASCII
text floating point numbers.

Examples:

	vgp data/orbit.data data/earth.dat data/latlon.dat

I've included some example data files to demonstrate some of the
concepts.  The data is in the 'data' sub-directory.  The first is
named 'spiral.dat'.  This is a simple spiral which is good
demonstration of the animation.  The file 'earth.dat' is the outline
of all the major land masses.  This is only for show purposes and not
the point of the program.  The last two files were generated by the
SWAS spacecraft simulation.  The file 'cone.dat' demonstrates the
solar array axis of the spacecraft acquiring the sun and coning about
it.  The file 'map.dat' demonstrates the mapping mode of the
spacecraft along the instrument bore-sight.  This data must be zoomed
in on a lot!  Look for the busy part of the picture.  This can be
found be starting the animation and rotating the sphere until you find
the point were the vector spends the most time.  Zoom in on this area
repeatedly and you will notice the finer and finer details of the
motion.


What vgp is not:

Since I work with spacecraft many people urged me to make the
sphere the earth and animate a spacecraft going around it.  But this
program is meant to be more general than that.  This program will
work with any series of 3D vectors.  Also, from an engineering
perspective, I feel this program, the way it is, gives the important
information.


What I would like to add to vgp:

 * Athena Widgets: I believe in the free software creed and would like
	people to be able to use my program without the proprietary
	Motif Widget set.  However, with the program working now
	with LessTif, this may never happen.

 * Keyboard Events: I couldn't figure out how to get keyboard events either.
	Left the code in there though.

 * File format: The file format now is just a list of three columns of
	ASCII text.  Does anybody have a better idea that's as flexible?
	I could do Matlab binary quite easily.

If anyone wants to help me with these things it would be greatly appreciated.

I recieved a patch file for vgp 1.0 to make it compile with Open Look.
I had orginally planned to include those changes in this version.
However, Open Look seems a bit passe nowadays.  If there's much
interest I can get it to work in Open Look.

Send Bugs, suggestions, help to:

		Rick Niles
		niles@axp745.gsfc.nasa.gov