QXGRAPH v1.25

QuantXT Graphing Utility — IBM PC/XT CGA Time‑Series Visualizer

A stand‑alone DOS graphing tool for the IBM PC/XT that renders financial, macroeconomic, and general time‑series datasets in CGA Mode 6 (640×200 monochrome). Designed as a companion utility to the QuantXT research platform, QXGRAPH runs clean on a stock 8088 XT with no extended memory, no EGA/VGA, and no mouse.

This release restores correctness after the v1.2 optimization pass and re‑establishes a stable, authentic CGA build.

Latest Release Here

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Overview

QXGRAPH reads plain‑text scenario files and renders each parameter as a scrollable, scalable line graph directly on CGA hardware. Parameters can be browsed manually or cycled automatically via carousel mode.

V1.2 fixes multiple regressions introduced during the optimization pass, including:

• broken inline assembly routines
• missing headers
• incorrect CGA memory math
• under‑clearing of the framebuffer
• unsafe line‑drawing optimizations

The renderer is now fully correct and period‑authentic.

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Requirements

• IBM PC/XT or compatible (8088/8086)
• CGA graphics card
• 8087 math coprocessor (required — compiled with -fpi87)
• DOS 3.x or later
• Compiled with Open Watcom 1.9 (-ml large model)

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Building

wmake -f QXGRAPH.mk -h -e QXGRAPH.exe

Compiler flags:

wcc *.C -i="C:\WATCOM/h" -i="<source_dir>" -w4 -e25 -zq -od -d2 -fpi87 -bt=dos -fo=.obj -ml

Note: The include path must point to your local source directory so the correct QXGRAPH.H is found during compilation.

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Usage

1. Place one or more .TXT data files in the working directory
2. Run QXGRAPH.EXE
3. Select a file from the picker
4. Browse parameters and adjust scaling
5. After closing a graph, press ENTER to return to the file picker or ESC to exit (new in V1.2)

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Controls

Key	Action
LEFT / RIGHT	Switch parameter
UP / DOWN	Scroll time window
A	Cycle scale mode
C	Toggle carousel auto‑advance
+ / =	Carousel faster (minimum 1 second)
-	Carousel slower (maximum 60 seconds)
ESC	Exit graph view or exit program from menu

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Scale Modes

Cycle with the A key. Current mode shown in title bar.

Mode	Behavior
Tight	Exact min/max of visible window
Padded	10% padding above and below range
Fixed	User‑defined min/max
Centered	Symmetric range around the mean — ideal for narrow‑variance or slowly trending data

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Carousel Mode

Press C to start automatic parameter cycling. The footer shows carousel status and current delay in seconds. Use + and - to adjust rotation speed. Press C again to stop.

Carousel timing uses the BIOS tick counter at 0000:046C (~18.2 ticks/sec) — no DOS timer calls, fully accurate at 4.77MHz.

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Data File Format

Plain text, space‑delimited. Supports two optional header lines before the column name line. The first column of each data row is a row label (date, scenario name, etc.) and is skipped during parsing.

# ticker SPX
# name open high low close volume rsi macd
2026-05-01 5204.30 5228.60 5192.10 5218.90 3284000000 53.8 18.60
2026-05-02 5218.90 5245.20 5208.40 5231.60 3156000000 55.2 19.10

Rules:

• # ticker — optional, sets ticker symbol in title bar
• # name — required for column labels; must contain name as first token
• Other # lines treated as comments
• Blank lines and DOS \r\n handled correctly
• Up to 256 rows, 19 parameters
• Files without headers fall back to col_1, col_2, etc.

QuantXT Scenario Format

#US_MARKET_FISCAL_30D REPORT 5/17/2026
#
# name int_rev debt_gdp usd_reserve_share cbo_deficit xdate sahm tail_risk liq_gap ofr hy_spread dxy_mom oil_price ai_capex lagged_ai geopolitical_risk investor_sentiment infl unemp gdp

day_01 22.10 70.10 65.0 3.05 90 0.20 1.25 1.02 0.96 0.0605 5.1 81 1.02 0.0 0.52 0.39 0.032 0.042 0.020

Stock / Technical Indicator Format

# ticker AAPL
# name open high low close volume vwap rsi macd macd_sig macd_hist sma20 sma50 bb_upper bb_lower atr obv stoch_k stoch_d
2026-05-01 189.20 191.40 188.60 190.80 52400000 190.10 58.2 1.24 0.98 0.26 188.40 184.20 194.60 182.20 1.84 52400000 62.4 58.1

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Parameter Descriptions

(unchanged — retained from v1.1)

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Y‑Axis Label Formatting

Values are auto‑formatted based on magnitude:

Range	Format	Example
≥ 1,000,000	Millions suffix	31393.0M
≥ 1,000	Thousands suffix	4.2K
< 0.1	4 decimal places	0.0605
All others	2 decimal places	22.74

format_val() currently uses sprintf(); integer‑math formatting planned for a future release.

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Source Files

File	Purpose
MAIN.C	Entry point, banner, file selection, return‑to‑menu loop
QXGRAPH.C	CGA renderer, Bresenham line, axes, scaling, label formatting
QXGRAPH.H	Graph structs, scale mode enum, carousel fields, API
QXRUN.C	Data loader, main graph loop, input dispatch, carousel timer
QXRUN.H	run_graph() prototype
TXT_PICK.C	Scrolling file picker
TXT_PICK.H	pick_txt_file() prototype

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QXGRAPH V1.25 — Update Summary

QXGRAPH V1.25 delivers a correctness‑focused, memory‑efficient, and dependency‑reduced build based on a fully verified Phase 1 compaction pass. All changes were validated against the real source tree and real scenario files, replacing earlier tracker assumptions with confirmed, tested improvements.

Core Functional Corrections

• Rewrote format_val() to remove sprintf, fixing multiple long‑standing formatting bugs and improving numerical correctness.
• Replaced atof() with a precise, custom parse_decimal() routine, validated against 1,653 real tokens with zero mismatches.
• Eliminated strtok() in favor of a safe, deterministic tokenizer that handles all real‑world spacing and CRLF cases.

Library Dependency Removal

• Removed all uses of sprintf, atof, strtok, memcpy, and memset from the codebase.
• These routines are now fully absent from the link, reducing binary size and improving runtime predictability.

Memory Footprint Reduction

• Narrowed parameter index fields to unsigned char, reducing struct size.
• Right‑sized MAX_ROWS from 256 → 40 based on real dataset characteristics, freeing ~34.5 KB of conventional RAM — a major win on 8088 systems.

Data Model Cleanup

• Audited and corrected the parameter‑description table (real count: 42 → 40).
• Removed two unused keys (name, adj_close) while retaining reserved computed‑indicator keys.

UI & Rendering Improvements

• Consolidated duplicated scale‑mode string logic with full correctness verification.
• Removed obsolete COLORS.H after confirming zero remaining usage.

Correctness‑Preserving Decisions

• Retained draw_midpoint_label() after functional review; now positioned as a foundation for future interactive cursor features.

Deferred Items

Prefix‑match lookup, banner redesign, and Watcom map‑file measurement remain open for future phases.

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License

© 2026 ArchLabWorks. All rights reserved.