From: Petr M. <mi...@ph...> - 2008-11-17 12:08:51
|
> However, the original pgnuplot is written by Hans so that the name of > console mode of gnuplot on win32 cannot be called as 'pgnuplot.exe' > as long as Hans does not agree with Petr's opinion. We agree that the console mode will be called gnuplot.exe. We all agree gnuplot.exe outperforms current pgnuplot.exe -> wgnuplot.exe. Now the question is whether pgnuplot.exe will use gnuplot.exe instead of the current use of wgnuplot.exe and how to achieve this. > No. pgnuplot can stay as it is. Real console gnuplot does more than > pgnuplot can, and does it better. So programs using pgnuplot now will > want to switch to the new gnuplot.exe anyway. A windows Program cannot switch easily: (a) it will take till next year when gnuplot 4.4 gets released; (b) it may take some months/years till users upgrade gnuplot; (c) all this is beyond control of gnuplot developers and of the Program developer. Therefore: 1. all current Program call pgnuplot.exe. 2. nobody knows whether gnuplot.exe is available for Program; We have to cope with this and provide a reliable service for gnuplot and Program's users and Program distributors/authors. Possible solutions for the Program's code: A. Program's author tries to autoconfigure on runtime by popen("gnuplot.exe --version") If it can read something, then use "gnuplot.exe", otherwise use "pgnuplot.exe". This need a change to source code of Program. B. Program does not care about gnuplot version, call always "pgnuplot.exe" -- then let pgnuplot.exe to choose what it will do. Therefore there are the following solutions for what the gnuplot distribution for win32 can contain: 1. There are 4 full-featured executables: wgnuplot.exe ... as nowadays wgnuplot_pipes.exe ... as nowadays pgnuplot_small.exe ... renamed current pgnuplot.exe gnuplot.exe ... console mode gnuplot pgnuplot.exe ... copy of gnuplot.exe 2. There are 3 full-featured executables: wgnuplot.exe ... as nowadays wgnuplot_pipes.exe ... as nowadays pgnuplot_small.exe ... renamed current pgnuplot.exe gnuplot.exe ... console mode gnuplot pgnuplot.exe ... small executable piping stdin to gnuplot.exe instead of wgnuplot.exe (I've send the code yesterday) 3. There are 3 full-featured executables: wgnuplot.exe ... as nowadays wgnuplot_pipes.exe ... as nowadays pgnuplot.exe ... the current version piping to wgnuplot gnuplot.exe ... console mode gnuplot Choice 3 is to be rejected as no Program profits from the console mode improvements. Using 2. will save cca 2 MB of disk space with respect to choice 1. So - shell the distribution contain 1 or 2? --- PM |