#1730 Line style of tics at the axis
I'm not sure whether this is a bug or just strange behaviour which needs to be properly documented in 'help set xtics' and 'help set border'.
In any case, the tics are generated in the same linestyle as selected for the border, even if the border is switched off. This leads to strange behaviour if axes are drawn at the axis and now border is used:
set border lt 4
unset border
set zeroaxis lt 2
set xtics axis
set ytics axis
In this case, the tics are generated using lt 4 and not lt 2.
From my perspective, it would be more intuitive if tics at the axis would be drawn with the same linestyle as the zeroaxis itself.
However, it could also be helpful if the tics could be formatted independently of the associated axis (but that argument would also apply to tics at the border).
From my perspective, the "perfect" behaviour would be:
- By default, tics at the border are drawn in the same style as the border.
- By default, tics at the axis are drawn in the same style as the zeroaxis (if zeroaxis is switched on).
- Tics can also be formatted independently of the position with their own linestyle (maybe even allow different linestyle for xtics and mxtics).
For example:
set xtics ls auto # as border at the border, as axis at the axis
set xtics ls 1 # use linestyle 1 even if border/axis uses a different linestyle
However, if all of this is too complicated, the special behaviour that you have to use the border linestyle in order to format the tics at the axis should be described in the help sections for xtics and for border.
I'm open for discussion.
I am using today's gnuplot CVS repository version, compiled with gcc 4.8.3 under SuSE linux.
The zeroaxis uses by default a dotted line. I don't think that default would be appropriate for tics. The same is true for the default linetype used to draw the grid.
Adding a statement in the documnetation that tic marks are drawn using the border linetype is easy.
Adding separate linetypes for each axis major and minor tic marks would be possible. I don't think I've ever needed that level of control myself, but other people may have other needs.
Please have a look to patch #726, "Document line style of tics (resolves bug 1730)" which resolves this bug.
Documentation patch applied.