Kst | |
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![]() Screenshot of Kst | |
Original author(s) | Barth Netterfield [1] |
Developer(s) | |
Repository | github |
Operating system |
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Type | Graph plotting software |
License | GPL [1] |
Website | kst-plot |
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 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]
kst is a fast real-time large-dataset plotting and viewing tool with basic data analysis functionality. [4] [5] [6]
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]
Kst has been chosen where there is a need to present plots in real-time. [9]
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]
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]
The tool offers a scripting language, termed KstScript based upon JavaScript syntax which can help automate workflows. [7]
Some alternatives include MATLAB, Qtiplot, SciDAVis, Grace and LabPlot. [6] However, some of these are part of a numerical analysis package. [6]
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. [a] It was developed under the Getdata project into an independent standard with its own API. [13]
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