#2597 yerrorbars: clearance between marker and error bars sized wrong when point size is set on plot command

[Anonymous]

Environment: gnuplot 5.4.6 packaged by Arch Linux, but also reproducible with gnuplot 5.4.4+ on Windows using the “portable” (.7z) package

When the background-filled circle is positioned between error bar and marker, the point size set on the plot command is not considered when calculating the size of the blanked-out area, which leads to too large gaps between marker and error bars.

Example snippet for reproducing the problem (see attached image for output):

set term pdfcairo
set samples 15
set output "case_1.pdf"
plot "+" u 1:1:(.75) w yerrorbars pt 7 ps .25
set output "case_2.pdf"
set pointsize .25
plot "+" u 1:1:(.75) w yerrorbars pt 7
unset output

Observed result: "gaps" between marker and error bars with case_1.pdf, but none with case_2.pdf

Expected result: no gaps between error bars in both case_1.pdf and case2.pdf

[Ethan Merritt]

Correct, the size of the gap in the error bar is not dependent on the point size in the plot.

From the documentation (note the final sentence)

gnuplot> help yerrorbars
The yerrorbars (or errorbars) style is only relevant to 2D data plots.
yerrorbars is like points, except that a vertical error bar is also drawn.
At each point (x,y), a line is drawn from (x,y-ydelta) to (x,y+ydelta) or
from (x,ylow) to (x,yhigh), depending on how many data columns are provided.
The appearance of the tic mark at the ends of the bar is controlled by
set errorbars. The clearance between the point and the error bars is
controlled by set pointintervalbox.

The logic is that you may wish to have a variety of point sizes/types within the plot, but the appearance of the errorbars should be consistent for all data points.

[Ethan Merritt]

Correct, the size of the gap in the error bar is not dependent on the point size in the plot.

From the documentation (note the final sentence)

gnuplot> help yerrorbars
The yerrorbars (or errorbars) style is only relevant to 2D data plots.
yerrorbars is like points, except that a vertical error bar is also drawn.
At each point (x,y), a line is drawn from (x,y-ydelta) to (x,y+ydelta) or
from (x,ylow) to (x,yhigh), depending on how many data columns are provided.
The appearance of the tic mark at the ends of the bar is controlled by
set errorbars. The clearance between the point and the error bars is
controlled by set pointintervalbox.

The logic is that you may wish to have a variety of point sizes/types within the plot, but the errorbars should be consistent.