XPLAB

This is the home page of XPLAB, a GTK 2 tool for pattern matching.

Last change 10 December, 2012

Newest release 0.4.6 (10 December, 2012)

Overview
Download
System Requirements
License
Tutorial

Overview

XPLAB tries to recognize patterns in a scanned document image by trained templates stored in a database. The main phases are training, recognition and maintenance. The user can switch easily between all phases in the same session. Some effort is made to simplify the training phase, which is the most time consuming part of interactivity.

XPLAB provides a so-called batch-mode. That means, XPLAB can be run without any GUI. The batch-mode is usable for the phases of recognition, clustering and RB chaining, respectively.

Download

XPLAB	GTK+	architecture
xplab-0.4.6.tgz (865KB) [xplab-0.4.6-tc.tgz (24MB)]	2.24.10 [optional testsuite]	64/32 bit
xplab-0.4.5.tgz (751KB) [xplab-0.4.5-tc.tgz (24MB)]	2.12.0 [optional testsuite]	64/32 bit
xplab-0.4.4.tgz (713KB)	2.12.0 [no more testsuite]	64/32 bit
xplab-0.4.3.tgz (5MB)	2.12.0	64/32 bit
xplab-0.4.2.tgz (3MB)	2.10.6 or newer	32 bit

Since XPLAB version 0.4.3 the architecture of 64 bit machines is taken into account. Since version 0.4.4 the testsuite is separated because of its size. For convenience the table on the right side shows available combinations of the different versions because not every combination is possible.

The testsuite package is packed and zipped like the source package. It's good for validation of XPLAB and has many testcases including images, databases and configuration files. The testsuite is not needed to get XPLAB work.

The package xplab-<version>.tgz is packed and zipped. Unpack with `tar -vxzf xplab-<version>.tgz' or only list the content and do nothing else with `tar -tzf xplab-<version>.tgz'. After unpacking first of all read the file README and please respect the GPL license in the file COPYING.

The Change Log contains the main changes to the last released source code.

The user manual manual.tgz (5MB, release 2012.12.01) is packed and zipped and hence has to be handled like the source code package above. The manual is written in HTML and relates always to the latest version of XPLAB.

The documentation (Update 29 May 2004, *** only in German language ***), available as PDF file plab.pdf or as compressed Postscript file plab.ps.gz, respectively, expounds the bases.

System Requirements

XPLAB is developed on a Linux system and all auxiliary tools needed are available on any Linux distribution or in the Internet.

The package contains the source files, written in C. So there must be an appropriate compiler, such as gcc, available on your system together with the make utility. The tar utility is needed to unpack the downloaded package.
XPLAB uses GTK 2 as the graphical lib (for version see table above), which must be available as well as the X Window System.
In the testsuite package a Perl routine runs the test-cases, so you need PERL 5 to perform the routine. However, to run the test-cases is not strictly required.

License

XPLAB is Free Software, distributed under the GNU GPL. This license grants you to run XPLAB for any purpose, to study how it works, and adapt it to your needs. Further, to redistribute copies of XPLAB, to improve it, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

Like all information, XPLAB comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, including (but not limited to) any warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

The author believes XPLAB to be a useful program that produces sufficient, human readable output. If you have questions, bugs to report, or requests for features, please send an email to the author.

XPLAB is written and maintained by: Elmar Sack; info@pattern-lab.de