                   Preface to Version 6.3

This manual describes the graphics library DISLIN written in
the programming language  FORTRAN.  The name  DISLIN  is  an
abbreviation  for  Device-Independent Software LINdau  since
applications were designed to run on different computer sys-
tems without any changes.  The library contains  subroutines
and  functions for  displaying  data  graphically as curves,
bar graphs, pie charts, 3-D colour plots, surfaces, contours
and maps.

DISLIN is intended to be a powerful and easy to use software
package for programmers and scientists that does not require
knowledge of hardware features of  output devices.  The rou-
tines in the graphics library are the result  of my own work
on many projects with different computers and many  plotting
packages.  There are  only a few  graphics  routines  with a
short parameter list needed to display the desired graphical
output.  A large variety  of parameter setting  routines can
then be called to create individually customized graphics.

Since the first version of DISLIN was released in Dec. 1986,
many changes and corrections have been made and new features
and standards have been added  to the  software. Some of the
new features since version 6.0  are  elementary image routi-
nes, a graphical user interface, filled contour lines  and a
C interface  for  reading binary data from Fortran programs.
DISLIN  is now  available  for several  hardware  platforms,
operating systems  and compilers.  A Fortran 90  version  of
DISLIN is in preparation.

Although nearly all  the routines and utilities of the soft-
ware package are written  by myself, DISLIN  would  not have
been possible  without the help of many people. I would like
to thank  several people at  the Max-Planck-Institut in Lin-
dau. First, Dr. W. Degenhardt and Dr. H. J. Mueller who gave
their friendly assistance.  To all the users of DISLIN, I am
grateful for your helpful  suggestions and comments. I would
especially like to thank the members of the computer center, 
Friederich Both,   Terry Ho,   Godehard Monecke  and Michael
Bruns  for their  co-operation.  Finally,  I am grateful  to
Linda See and Erika Eschebach who corrected the English  and
German manuals with  great carefulness.  To all of them,  my
sincere thanks.

H. Michels                               Lindau,  15.09.1996
