gnuplot development

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: 4.2.3

Notes:
   	           GNUPLOT VERSION 4.2.3
	    ===================================

Version 4.2.3 is an incremental update to the current official base
release gnuplot version 4.2.

A synopsis of changes since 4.2.2 is given below and in the NEWS file.
Full information is given in the ChangeLog.

New features, changes and fixes in gnuplot version 4.2.3
===========================================================
* NEW options front and back to "set colorbox"
* NEW character encoding support for emf and pdf terminals
* NEW "format" keyword for "set tics" and "set {x|y|...}tics"
* NEW allow user to set colorbar label rotatation if the bar is vertical
* FIX allow tic format to be given as a string variable
* FIX handling of negative screen coordinates on ia64, PPC
* FIX coloring of hidden surfaces if drawn with line styles
* FIX direction of y axis in graph coords for "set view map"
* FIX minitics in log scale
* FIX minor bugfixes to terminals fig, emf, post, svg, x11
* FIX cgm terminal now produces correct pm3d and pattern fill output
* FIX protect against overly long font names in gd, svg
* FIX infinite loop from x11 plot window resizing under ion, fluxbox
* FIX never estimate zero size for a non-empty string
* FIX discard degenerate polygons during hidden3d processing
* FIX segfault if replot is called while terminal type is unknown
* FIX segfault if locale obtained by getenv() is freed
* FIX discard axis ticks read from previous data file
* FIX Do not clip image against Z range in 3D splot with "set view map"
* FIX off-by-one error in implicit column 0 for binary data files
* FIX splot was trashing the default clipping boundaries for 2D plots
* CHANGE tweak installation scripts for OSX nt cyg dj2 mgw
* CHANGE install Xresource file as Gnuplot, not Gnuplot.app-defaults
* CHANGE Remove limitation of 10 args max to internal function sprintf()
* CHANGE Bring emf point types into conformity with other terminals
* CHANGE estimate the space for rotated tick labels on x and x2 axes


Demo plots illustrating these and other features are online at

	http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_4.2/

You can download a source tarball for gnuplot version 4.2.2 from the 
gnuplot development site on SourceForge.

	http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2055


Installation
------------
Installation instructions are available in the source itself; the short
version for linux/unix-like systems is to unpack the tarball and then
build it:
		cd gnuplot-4.2.3 ; ./configure ; make
test it:
		make check
install it:
		make install


Known issues
------------

- Internationalization and locale support is incomplete in this version.
  If you encounter problems with character encodings, numerical formats,
  or other locale issues, try the CVS version on SourceForge.

- Octave has recently changed its method of sending data to gnuplot for
  plotting; data is passed in-line through the pipe to gnuplot's stdin.
  Unfortunately, the current Gnuplot 4.2 code does not support mouse
  interaction with in-line data.  This problem is fixed in the CVS
  version, and the fix may be back-ported to the next incremental
  release (4.2.4).

- The interaction between "set origin" and "set size ratio" changed
  between version 4.0 and 4.2.  This was unintentional, and makes it
  very hard to align subplots within a multiplot if any of the plots use
  "set size ratio".  The CVS version contains a new alignment method
  that may be back-ported to the next incremental release (4.2.4).


Support
-------
Please report all bugs and installation problems to the bug tracker
on SourceForge:

	http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=2055&atid=102055

There is also an active gnuplot discussion forum on usenet group

	comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot

Development
-----------
Gnuplot development is quite active. The development branch (4.3) on 
SourceForge contains preliminary implementations of many new features.
This branch will eventually be released either as version 4.4 or 5.0.
Feedback and contributions of code are very welcome.


Changes: