[Kst] [Bug 135038] New: Add support for units in vectors

[Nicolas Brisset]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=135038         
           Summary: Add support for units in vectors
           Product: kst
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: unspecified
        OS/Version: Solaris
            Status: NEW
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: kst kde org
        ReportedBy: nicolas.brisset eurocopter com


Version:           1.3.0 (using KDE 3.4.0, compiled sources)
Compiler:          gcc version 3.4.3
OS:                SunOS (sun4u) release 5.8

I think it is *essential* to be able to manage units when plotting curves. It would hence give kst a nice professional touch if vectors got a new "unit" property, which would be used throughout kst:
- to generate X/Y labels
- in legend text
- to perform automatic conversions (curve->RMB->convert->to [list of relevant units based on the Y vector's unit])
- ...

I think a couple of new virtual functions in kstdatasource could be added (virtual bool vectorsHaveUnits() const; etc...), for those datasources that support it. ASCII files can have units in a separate line (it is the case with our legacy ASCII format, which is why I had originally included it in my first version of the ASCII config dialog), CDF or netCDF variables often have a "unit" attribute, etc...  
Then, in a first step we could generate label names with 'field + " (" + unit + ")"' if units are available. That would already be a very nice feature :-)
I'd be willing to prepare a patch to add support for units in ASCII, CDF, netCDF datasources...

Are current users (other than me :-)) actually asking for this ? I can't imagine Planck and Blast experiments handling unitless data... how are people actually working right now ?