PLplot

On 2004-04-29 08:23+0200 Arjen Markus wrote:

> Hello Jean,
>
> as far as I know, there is only a source code distribution available.
> If you do not have access to a compiler, can you tell me/us (see the
> cc) how you want to use it, e.g. in one of the supported scripting
> languages?
>
> I have no experience in distributing the libraries in binary form,
> so if you require that, then I would need some help myself ...
>
> General:
> What are the ideas about providing a binary distribution for
> the more popular platforms?
> (I can imagine a number of disadvantages and advantages, and
> I tend to think the disadvantages weigh heavy - increased
> workload and so on ...)

I think the best bet for any windows user without the money to rent a
compiler from MS is to use Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/).  That
windows-based Unix-like platform is free (in both senses of the word) and
provides the excellent gcc compiler (and a whole lot more).  Recent reports
indicate PLplot works well (with some documented, but not show-stopping
constraints, see our INSTALL file) on Cygwin.

Of course, Arjen, if you do decide to do a binary windows distribution
most/all of the work would fall on your shoulders since the rest of the
core developers have little windows expertise.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin
email: irwin@...
phone: 250-727-2902

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org), the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net), the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net), and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________

"Alan W. Irwin" wrote:
> 
> On 2004-04-29 08:23+0200 Arjen Markus wrote:
> 
> > Hello Jean,
> >
> > as far as I know, there is only a source code distribution available.
> > If you do not have access to a compiler, can you tell me/us (see the
> > cc) how you want to use it, e.g. in one of the supported scripting
> > languages?
> >
> > I have no experience in distributing the libraries in binary form,
> > so if you require that, then I would need some help myself ...
> >
> > General:
> > What are the ideas about providing a binary distribution for
> > the more popular platforms?
> > (I can imagine a number of disadvantages and advantages, and
> > I tend to think the disadvantages weigh heavy - increased
> > workload and so on ...)
> 
> I think the best bet for any windows user without the money to rent a
> compiler from MS is to use Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/).  That
> windows-based Unix-like platform is free (in both senses of the word) and
> provides the excellent gcc compiler (and a whole lot more).  Recent reports
> indicate PLplot works well (with some documented, but not show-stopping
> constraints, see our INSTALL file) on Cygwin.
> 
> Of course, Arjen, if you do decide to do a binary windows distribution
> most/all of the work would fall on your shoulders since the rest of the
> core developers have little windows expertise.
> 
> Alan

:) I am aware of that - the main problem is that I have little or no
experience in making a binary distribution that will work properly:
I recently had some altercations on Linux that have convinced me that
this is not always trivial.

They are very particular to my situation (a "big" program that uses
PLplot as a library and takes care of the user-interface itself, 
which makes it necessary for me to do some adjustments to PLplot
- more on that later today). But they have let me to change from
the combination "static library for PLplot proper and dynamically
loadable drivers" to "dynamic library for PLplot and dynamic drivers".

(The problem was that I could not get the drivers to be loaded from
a different directory - dlopen() would fail).

I mentioned a binary version, because it is rather usual for Windows
software to be distributed in binary form. I do not think we should 
go that way, as it involves a lot of work for which I at least 
can not find the time at the moment. (Darn, I am lagging behind with 
a couple of adjustments/extensions already ;)

Regards,

Arjen