Re: Problem and solution: Patch for new "stats" command

[Hans-Bernhard B. <HBB...@t-...>]

Philipp K. Janert wrote:
> 1) Convenience
> I do this stuff w/ external scripts, too, and I always find it
> annoying that I have to pop up a different window, run my
> little script, copy and paste the results back into gnuplot...

Then don't.  At least the wgnuplot_pipes binary can do `backtics` 
command substitution and other piping tricks just fine.  For fully 
command-line style usage, there's always the "console gnuplot for 
windows" build option.

> 2) Multiplatform
> Exactly how do you do any of this if you are NOT on Linux?

The same way you do it on Linux, for just about every gnuplot except the 
traditional, non-pipe wgnuplot.exe on MS Windows.

> (I admit this is a pretty weak argument, but it is not entirely
> baseless. People are much less likely to have Perl/Python
> installed on their Win box, compared to a standalone gnuplot
> binary.)

People who are likely to even arrive at the idea of trying to use them, 
will.

> - Should gnuplot (deep breath) develop a "plugin" architecture?

If anybody can figure out one that is anywhere near as portable as 
gnuplot itself, sure.  And let's not forget that the internals of the 
program would need a _major_ overhaul before they could safely be 
exported to a (possibly malicious) plugin...