Many line plot commands have a `hardcopy' keyword to choose between the `soft' and `hard' device, or between the `idev' and `hard' device. However, some don't and others use both devices for different plots.
If you actually tried to enter `options' as hard device you will have noticed that the list contains the screen devices as well. In fact there is no principal difference between all those devices, each can be selected as `soft', `hard', or `idev' device. The three commands to select the three devices just help Figaro to remember more than one device name and to channel the right output to the right device. You can send your hard-copies to the X screen and your screen plots into a PostScript file!
This is a valid option. If there is an application that sends your favourite plot always to the screen, you can
ICL> hard ps_l ICL> soft ps_l draw=f ICL> idev ps_l draw=f
and all your plots go into PostScript files. Note that you should use the `draw' keyword to suppress the creation of an extra page with the frame plotted by `soft' and `idev'.
FIGARO A general data reduction system