Re: [Gnuplot-py-users] Re: Contributions to Gnuplot.py

[Fernando P. <fp...@co...>]

Michael Haggerty wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I just implemented some accumulated suggestions in the CVS version of 
> Gnuplot.py.
> 
> Fernando Perez wrote:
> 
> 
>>>Some quick comments regarding your specific ideas:
>>>
>>> > -plot(y) -> plot a NumPy array against its indices 
>>
> 
> Done.

Great!
>>> > -plot(x,y) -> plot y vs x
>>
> 
> I will not implement this (because of the ambiguity).  But since this 
> seems to be a popular feature, maybe I'll implement it with another name 
> (like 'qplot()', as suggested by Leo Milano).

Fair enough.  I agree that it's ambiguous.  I did it simply because _I_ use it 
a lot, and I know how to handle it.  But for a general public tool, it's much 
cleaner to have a different function.  However, qplot() should keep the same 
interface as plot() in regards to options, etc.

>>> > -plot(y1,None,y2) -> plot y1,y2 vs their indices (None is a 
>>>separator) 
>>
> 
> Ditto.

good.

>>> > -plot(y,filename='out.eps') -> make eps output reliably
>>> >  (there's a tricky timing issue which requires
>>> >  retrying the print command with a sleep()) 
>>
> 
> I still don't understand the timing issue.  But I see the need to be 
> able to plot directly to a "hardcopy" file (be it PS or EPS or PNG or 
> ...) without first plotting to a graphics window.  It would be very 
> nearly possible now, if Gnuplot._add_to_queue() were a documented part 
> of the interface.

Agreed on the auto-plotting to file without plotting window.  This was 
critical to me, but I only implemented eps output.

Re. the timing issue: honestly, I don't understand it either.  I only know I 
wasted an entire Saturday trying to find any pattern to it, and finally 
decided to brute-force a solution with the 20 tries approach.  Inelegant as 
hell, but so far it's done the job for me ;)

>>> > - Added the 'index' keyword arg to File, similar to Gnuplot's
>>> >   index option to select a dataset from a file with multiple
>>> >   datasets in it.
>>
> 
> Done.

Good.

As far as I can see, you've pretty much brought into the Gnuplot.py mainline 
almost everything which IPython's gnuplot support added.  This is great news, 
since I didn't want to fork your code, but simply offer functionality which I 
felt was needed for daily work.

Once you make a release (hopefully with hardcopy-without-window in, which I 
consider critical), perhaps we can comb over what's left and I could deprecate 
IPython's gnuplot stuff in favor of your mainline code.

Best regards,

Fernando.