1SCONVERT(1)                 General Commands Manual                SCONVERT(1)
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NAME

6       sconvert - convert spice formats
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SYNOPSIS

9       sconvert fromtype fromfile totype tofile
10       sconvert fromtype totype
11       sconvert
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DESCRIPTION

14       Sconvert  translates  spice  output  files among three formats: the old
15       binary format, a new binary format, and a new ascii format.   The  for‐
16       mats  are  specified  by the fromtype and totype arguments: `o' for the
17       old format, `b' for the new binary format, and `a' for  the  new  ascii
18       format.  Fromtype specifies the format to be read, and totype specifies
19       the format to be written.  If fromfile and tofile are given, then  they
20       are  used  as the input and output, otherwise standard input and output
21       are used.  (Note that this second option is only available on UNIX sys‐
22       tems  - on VMS and other systems you must supply the filenames.)  If no
23       arguments are given, the parameters are prompted for.
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25       Binary format is the preferred format for general use,  as  it  is  the
26       most  economical  in  terms  of space and speed of access, and ascii is
27       provided to make it easy to modify data files and transfer them between
28       machines with different floating-point formats.  The old format is pro‐
29       vided only for backward compatibility.  The three formats are  as  fol‐
30       lows:
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32       Old:
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34                What          Size in Bytes
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36            title                    80
37            date                8
38            time                8
39            numoutputs               2
40            the integer 4            2
41            variable names --
42                 char[numoutputs][8] numoutputs * 8
43            types of output               numoutputs * 2
44            node index               numoutputs * 2
45            plot title               numoutputs * 24
46            the actual data               numpoints * numoutputs * 8
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48       Ascii:
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50            Title: Title Card String
51            Date: Date
52            [ Plotname: Plot Name
53              Flags: complex or real
54              No. Variables: numoutputs
55              No. Points: numpoints
56              Command: nutmeg command
57              Variables:   0 varname1 typename1
58                      1 varname2 typename2
59                      etc...
60              Values:
61                0     n    n    n    n    ...
62                1     n    n    n    n    ...
63                And so forth...
64            ] repeated one or more times
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66       If  one of the flags is complex, the points look like r,i where r and i
67       are floating point (in %e format).  Otherwise they are  in  %e  format.
68       Only one of real and complex should appear.
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70       The  lines  are  guaranteed to be less than 80 columns wide (unless the
71       plot title or variable names are very long), so this format is safe  to
72       mail between systems like CMS.
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74       Any number of Command: lines may appear between the No. Points: and the
75       Variables: lines, and whenever the plot is loaded into nutmeg they will
76       be executed.
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78       Binary:
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80            Title Card            (a NULL terminated string)
81            Date, Time            (a NULL terminated string)
82            [
83              Plot title          (a NULL terminated string)
84              Number of variables   (an int)
85              Number of data points (an int)
86              flags          (a short)
87              variable header struct (repeated numoutputs times)
88                 variable name    (a NULL terminated string)
89                 variable type    (an int)
90              set of outputs      (repeated numpoints times)
91            ] repeated one or more times.
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93       A set of outputs is a vector of doubles of length numoutputs, or a vec‐
94       tor of real-imaginary pairs of doubles if the data is complex.
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SEE ALSO

97       nutmeg(1), spice(1), writedata(3)
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AUTHOR

100       Wayne Christopher (faustus@cad.berkeley.edu)
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BUGS

103       If variable names and the title  and  plotname  strings  have  trailing
104       blanks  in  them they will be stripped off when the file is read, if it
105       is in ascii format.
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107       If a plot title begins with "Title:" nutmeg will be fooled into  think‐
108       ing  that  this  is an ascii format file.  Sconvert always requires the
109       type to be specified, however.
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1134th Berkeley Distribution         2014-10-28                       SCONVERT(1)
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