Important note for current KnotPlot users

If you are installing a new version of KnotPlot and you already have the distribution installed, you should know that the method by which KnotPlot handles multiple commands on one command line has changed. This was (and is) an undocumented feature, but examples can be seen in the files basic-demos, small-monster-relaxationC, initialize-paint-panel, and unknot-flowers in the demos directory. The old method used a comma to separate commands, as in the examples:

ncur = 4, nseg= 15
fitto 10, about z 45

The new method uses a semi-colon instead, in an attempt to be consistent with the C-shell. So the above should now be entered as

ncur = 4; nseg= 15
fitto 10; about z 45

in all versions of KnotPlot past version 1685 (use the version command to find out what version you are running). Many files in the demos directory, as well as the knotplotrc file in the resource directory should be updated to the new vesions. You may encounter problems using the old versions of the files with the new version of the program. Therefore I recommend replacing your distribution with a fresh version. Be sure to squirrel away your kp-thing file before clobbering the old distribution. You can copy that over the kp-thing file in your updated distribution.

It is still possible to run a new KnotPlot with the old version of the distribution, but you'll get a warning every time you run KnotPlot (along with any errors that the use of the comma might cause). If this annoys you, let me know and I'll tell you how to disable the warning permanently.


Go to the KnotPlot Site or Rob Scharein's main WWW page.