I said “almost ready to print”! Of course, there is a bug in the
print-graph function … It has a vertical-step
option, but not a horizontal-step option. The
top-of-range scale goes from 10 to 300 by tens. But the
print-graph function will print only by ones.
This is a classic example of what some consider the most insidious type of bug, the bug of omission. This is not the kind of bug you can find by studying the code, for it is not in the code; it is an omitted feature. Your best actions are to try your program early and often; and try to arrange, as much as you can, to write code that is easy to understand and easy to change. Try to be aware, whenever you can, that whatever you have written, will be rewritten, if not soon, eventually. A hard maxim to follow.
It is the print-X-axis-numbered-line function that needs the
work; and then the print-X-axis and the print-graph
functions need to be adapted. Not much needs to be done; there is one
nicety: the numbers ought to line up under the tic marks. This takes
a little thought.
Here is the corrected print-X-axis-numbered-line:
(defun print-X-axis-numbered-line
(number-of-X-tics X-axis-leading-spaces
&optional horizontal-step)
"Print line of X-axis numbers"
(let ((number X-axis-label-spacing)
(horizontal-step (or horizontal-step 1)))
(insert X-axis-leading-spaces)
;; Delete extra leading spaces.
(delete-char
(- (1-
(length (number-to-string horizontal-step)))))
(insert (concat
(make-string
;; Insert white space.
(- (* symbol-width
X-axis-label-spacing)
(1-
(length
(number-to-string horizontal-step)))
2)
? )
(number-to-string
(* number horizontal-step))))
;; Insert remaining numbers.
(setq number (+ number X-axis-label-spacing))
(while (> number-of-X-tics 1)
(insert (X-axis-element
(* number horizontal-step)))
(setq number (+ number X-axis-label-spacing))
(setq number-of-X-tics (1- number-of-X-tics)))))
If you are reading this in Info, you can see the new versions of
print-X-axis print-graph and evaluate them. If you are
reading this in a printed book, you can see the changed lines here
(the full text is too much to print).
(defun print-X-axis (numbers-list horizontal-step) "Print X axis labels to length of NUMBERS-LIST. Optionally, HORIZONTAL-STEP, a positive integer, specifies how much an X axis label increments for each column."
;; Value of symbol-width and full-Y-label-width
;; are passed by print-graph.
(let* ((leading-spaces
(make-string full-Y-label-width ? ))
;; symbol-width is provided by graph-body-print
(tic-width (* symbol-width X-axis-label-spacing))
(X-length (length numbers-list))
(X-tic
(concat
(make-string
;; Make a string of blanks.
(- (* symbol-width X-axis-label-spacing)
(length X-axis-tic-symbol))
? )
;; Concatenate blanks with tic symbol.
X-axis-tic-symbol))
(tic-number
(if (zerop (% X-length tic-width))
(/ X-length tic-width)
(1+ (/ X-length tic-width)))))
(print-X-axis-tic-line
tic-number leading-spaces X-tic)
(insert "\n")
(print-X-axis-numbered-line
tic-number leading-spaces horizontal-step)))
(defun print-graph (numbers-list &optional vertical-step horizontal-step) "Print labeled bar graph of the NUMBERS-LIST. The numbers-list consists of the Y-axis values.
Optionally, VERTICAL-STEP, a positive integer, specifies how much a Y axis label increments for each line. For example, a step of 5 means that each row is five units.
Optionally, HORIZONTAL-STEP, a positive integer,
specifies how much an X axis label increments for
each column."
(let* ((symbol-width (length graph-blank))
;; height is both the largest number
;; and the number with the most digits.
(height (apply 'max numbers-list))
(height-of-top-line
(if (zerop (% height Y-axis-label-spacing))
height
;; else
(* (1+ (/ height Y-axis-label-spacing))
Y-axis-label-spacing)))
(vertical-step (or vertical-step 1))
(full-Y-label-width
(length
(concat
(number-to-string
(* height-of-top-line vertical-step))
Y-axis-tic))))
(print-Y-axis
height-of-top-line full-Y-label-width vertical-step)
(graph-body-print
numbers-list height-of-top-line symbol-width)
(print-X-axis numbers-list horizontal-step)))