gnuplot-beta — Developers and beta testers of new gnuplot code

Re: web page for 4.0

[Lars H. <lhe...@us...>]

Petr Mikulik writes:
> > Also there is no "gnuplot reference card" from docs/gpcard.tex -- if someone
> > makes html or pdf file made from it and proofread it for gnuplot 4.0, then I
> > put it there -- othewise no time.
> 
> I've updated it.
 
 I've updated the pdf on our web site, too.

Re: web page for 4.0

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

> Also there is no "gnuplot reference card" from docs/gpcard.tex -- if someone
> makes html or pdf file made from it and proofread it for gnuplot 4.0, then I
> put it there -- othewise no time.

I've updated it.

It's plain-TeX, so no html.

---
PM

Re: OK, here's the updated "version" splash text

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Lars Hecking wrote:

> 
> > >  cpp analysis shows that TBOOLEAN gets defined to _Bool, which in turn is
> > >  typedef'd to unsigned char.
> > 
> > I revived my access to a Tru64 box, and saw the same thing.  The weird 
> > thing is that if I change the affected function definitions into 
> > ANSI style, the problem goes away.
>  
>  ANSI and K&R compilers differ in how they handle arument promotions.

Sure.  But the case at hand is between an ANSI compiler and itself.

IIRC, the idea was that the presence of a prototype would effectively
eliminate the differences between ANSI and K&R function argument
definitions.

> > That would seem to go against the grain of the whole way gnuplot handles
> > pre-ANSI vs. ANSI C (optional ANSI prototype declarations, but K&R
> > definitions), which seems to be accepted by just about every other
> > compiler on the planet.
> 
>  In fact, half or so of the gnuplot sources already have ANSI function
>  definitions.

Should that many have slipped under my radar?

>  At this point, we should switch to ANSI/ISO C throughout the source
>  (maybe not just now for the new release). 

Right.  That should be the first global change *after* the release.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: Announcement, first draft

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Lars Hecking wrote:

>  
> >  DISTRIBUTION SITES
> >  ==================
>  
>  CTAN is missing. 

Added.

>  They, and presumably the French and Australian mirrors, too,
>  are mirroring from ftp.ucc.ie/pub/gnuplot (--> my job to update that).

So: you write and post the Announcement, then? ;-)

> >   OTHER:
> >   
> >        Source and binary distributions for the Amiga will be available
> >        on Aminet http://ftp.wustl.edu/~aminet/ and its mirrors as
> >        gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0bin.lha
> >        gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0doc.lha
> >        gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0src.lha
>    
>  Not sure I'll be able to create these. I think I have never ever tried
>  to compile the 3.8 branch on the Amiga.

I'll turn that from a "will be" to a "might become" then.

> >  THE CONTRIB SECTION
> >  ===================
> > 
> >  An improved gnuplot mode for X/Emacs by Bruce Ravel is available from
> >  http://feff.phys.washington.edu/~ravel/software/gnuplot-mode/Welcome.html.
> >  It has already been added to the development version of gnuplot.
>  
>  It is now part of gnuplot.

Updated.
> >  The gnuplot team would like to thank all who have contributed to this
> >  release through discussions, suggestions, bug reports, and patches,
> >  on Usenet and mailing lists.  Special thanks go to Juergen von Hagen
> >  who maintained the gnuplot FAQ for q while.  To Ethan Merritt and
> 
>  s/q/a/

Yep ;-)

> >  [1] The gif terminal driver requires third party software. Because the
> >      version of gd library currently at http://www.boutell.com/gd/ does
> >      NOT create gif images, we are providing gd library version 1.3 and 1.4
> >      at from the gnuplot distribution sites.
>  
>  Should we really supply them, or should we stop that?

Why stop now, of all times?  This footnote was in the Announcement of
the 3.7 versions, too (of which this obviously is an edited version ;-),
and the relevant patents are due to expire June this year.

> >  [2] the png terminal driver requires third party software.
[...]
>  The URLs are changed now, I think.
> 
>  http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html
>  http://www.gzip.org/zlib/

OK.  Updated.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: OK, here's the updated "version" splash text

[Lars H. <lhe...@us...>]

> >  cpp analysis shows that TBOOLEAN gets defined to _Bool, which in turn is
> >  typedef'd to unsigned char.
> 
> I revived my access to a Tru64 box, and saw the same thing.  The weird 
> thing is that if I change the affected function definitions into 
> ANSI style, the problem goes away.
 
 ANSI and K&R compilers differ in how they handle arument promotions.

> That would seem to go against the grain of the whole way gnuplot handles
> pre-ANSI vs. ANSI C (optional ANSI prototype declarations, but K&R
> definitions), which seems to be accepted by just about every other
> compiler on the planet.

 In fact, half or so of the gnuplot sources already have ANSI function
 definitions.

 At this point, we should switch to ANSI/ISO C throughout the source
 (maybe not just now for the new release). Not sure how many K&R compilers
 we need to support, but SunOS' cc worked quite well with the supplied
 ansi2knr, last time I checked (probably some time last year).

Yet another tarball.

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

I've re-tagged and tarballed the current state of things once more.
Same place as before.

The USERPROFILE change for Windows is in, the splash text is changed.

Other changes affect only documentation files.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: Announcement, first draft

[Lars H. <lhe...@us...>]

 
>  DISTRIBUTION SITES
>  ==================
 
 CTAN is missing. They, and presumably the French and Australian mirrors, too,
 are mirroring from ftp.ucc.ie/pub/gnuplot (--> my job to update that).

>   OTHER:
>   
>        Source and binary distributions for the Amiga will be available
>        on Aminet http://ftp.wustl.edu/~aminet/ and its mirrors as
>        gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0bin.lha
>        gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0doc.lha
>        gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0src.lha
   
 Not sure I'll be able to create these. I think I have never ever tried
 to compile the 3.8 branch on the Amiga.

>  THE CONTRIB SECTION
>  ===================
> 
>  An improved gnuplot mode for X/Emacs by Bruce Ravel is available from
>  http://feff.phys.washington.edu/~ravel/software/gnuplot-mode/Welcome.html.
>  It has already been added to the development version of gnuplot.
 
 It is now part of gnuplot.

>  The gnuplot team would like to thank all who have contributed to this
>  release through discussions, suggestions, bug reports, and patches,
>  on Usenet and mailing lists.  Special thanks go to Juergen von Hagen
>  who maintained the gnuplot FAQ for q while.  To Ethan Merritt and

 s/q/a/

>  Petr Mikulik for lots of work all over the place, and to Johannes
>  Zellner for the original mouse support.
>  
>                                         -Thomas Williams-
>                                         -Lars Hecking-
> 					-Hans-Bernhard Broeker-
> 
>  FOOTNOTES
>  =========
> 
>  [1] The gif terminal driver requires third party software. Because the
>      version of gd library currently at http://www.boutell.com/gd/ does
>      NOT create gif images, we are providing gd library version 1.3 and 1.4
>      at from the gnuplot distribution sites.
 
 Should we really supply them, or should we stop that?

>  [2] the png terminal driver requires third party software. The png graphics
>      library and zlib can be downloaded from
>      http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png/pngcode.html
>      and
>      http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/
>      respectively. They are also available from the gnuplot distribution
>      sites.

 The URLs are changed now, I think.

 http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html
 http://www.gzip.org/zlib/

Re: web page for 4.0

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Lars Hecking wrote:

> 
> > Also there is no "gnuplot reference card" from docs/gpcard.tex -- if someone
> > makes html or pdf file made from it and proofread it for gnuplot 4.0, then I
> > put it there -- othewise no time.
>  
>  http://www.nmrc.ie/~lhecking/gpcard.pdf
> 
>  Don't know how to produce a html version.

That may well be impossible.  The refcard is in raw TeX (no texinfo, no
LaTeX) and I'm not sure any converter exists from there to HTML.

Anyway, I doubt a HTML edition would make much sense.  This reference card
is expressly designed to be printed and kept close to the keyboard.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: web page for 4.0

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> -- Announcement for 4.0

See other mail.

> -- Better "Download" section?

What do you think is wrong about that, currently?

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: INSTALL and Environ variables

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> It seems that section "Environment variables" in file INSTALL does not
> mention GDFONTPATH. Can someone add it?

Please do so yourself.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: OK, here's the updated "version" splash text

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Lars Hecking wrote:

[... regarding OSF1 / Digital Unix / Tru64 ...]

>  configuring with either 'CC=cc' or 'CC="cc -std"' gives rise to warnings
>  like this:
> 
> cc -std -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I..  -I../term -I../term -DBINDIR=\"/usr/local/bin\" -DX11_DRIVER_DIR=\"/usr/local/libexec/gnuplot/4.0\" -DCONTACT=\"gnu...@li...\" -DHELPFILE=\"/usr/local/share/gnuplot/4.0/gnuplot.gih\" -I/usr/local/include  -g -c `test -f 'axis.c' || echo './'`axis.c
> cc: Warning: axis.c, line 188: In the definition of the function "axis_unlog_interval", the promoted type of checkrange is incompatible with the type of the corresponding parameter in a prior declaration. (promotmatchw)
>     TBOOLEAN checkrange;
> -------------^
> 
>  cpp analysis shows that TBOOLEAN gets defined to _Bool, which in turn is
>  typedef'd to unsigned char.

I revived my access to a Tru64 box, and saw the same thing.  The weird 
thing is that if I change the affected function definitions into 
ANSI style, the problem goes away.

That would seem to go against the grain of the whole way gnuplot handles
pre-ANSI vs. ANSI C (optional ANSI prototype declarations, but K&R
definitions), which seems to be accepted by just about every other
compiler on the planet.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Announcement, first draft

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

Hello, everybody,

here's the proposed Announcement for 4.0.0 (also available for download
from my home.arcor.de space in case the mailer garbles something):

 GNUPLOT - The Next Generation
 =============================

This is the official release announcement for gnuplot 4.0.0, the first
major version number upgrade of gnuplot in more than a decade.

        G N U P L O T
        Version 4.0 patchlevel 0
        last modified Thu Apr 15 13:25:08 CEST 2004

It has taken a long time, but the gnuplot developers sincerely hope
the result was worth waiting for.  See below for a list of changes
since the previous release, 3.7 patchlevel 3, also known as 3.7.3.

 THE FAQ
 =======

An updated version of the gnuplot FAQ is now available.  It can be found
at the following locations:

http://www.gnuplot.info/faq.html
ftp://ftp.gnuplot.info/pub/gnuplot/faq/faq.txt
All main distribution sites in the faq/ subdirectory.

The FAQ is not being maintained very actively at the moment.
Volunteers are encouraged to contact the gnuplot developers at
gnuplot-beta -at- lists.sourceforge.net

 GNUPLOT AND GIF IMAGES
 ======================

An important note to all who wish to create GIF images with gnuplot:

* Gnuplot requires the gd library from http://www.boutell.com/gd/ to       *
* create gif output.  Note that the use of this code may subject your      *
* organisation to a charge of willful patent infringement (as stated       *
* by UNISYS) unless you are in possession of a UNISYS license.             *
*                                                                          *
* The UNISYS patent covers the LZW technology which is used to create      *
* gifs.  To our knowledge, only gd library version 1.3 and 1.4 are free    * 
* of LZW code and should therefore be used with gnuplot (unless you have   *
* a license from Unisys to use LZW code, in which case version 1.2 and 1.5 *
* is fine, too).  The binaries provided here have been built with version  *
* 1.3.  Version 1.6+ cannot be used because support for GIF has been       *
* removed altogether.                                                      *

The relevant patents will expire relatively soon, but it's quite
unclear right now whether the capability to write GIF files will be
restored to the GD library.

As all GIF-creating versions of gd library seem to have been taken off
www.boutell.com, we are providing gd library versions 1.3 and 1.4 at
the gnuplot distribution sites [1].  Should any legal problems arise,
we will remove this software.

 The PNG image format is a strongly recommended alternative to gif. 
See [2].

 DISTRIBUTION
 ============

By the time you receive this, copies of gnuplot-4.0.0.tar.gz
should be at the official repositories.  Binary versions for
various non-Unix platforms will be made available in the same
places.  Please allow a couple of days for these distributions
to appear.

A diffs file relative to gnuplot-3.7.3 will not be made --- it would
be larger than the source code tarball itself.

All distribution archives are signed with a public key which is
available from public key servers.  For more information, see the
README and PGPKEYS file at the distribution sites.

 DISTRIBUTION SITES
 ==================

  NORTH AMERICA
  
       Anonymous ftp to ftp.gnuplot.info:
       ftp://ftp.gnuplot.info/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-4.0.0.tar.gz
  
       Alternatively, you can use your web browser to get gnuplot
       from the gnuplot web pages at
  
       http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuplot/
  
  AUSTRALIA:
  
       From the AARNet Mirror Project:
       ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/gnuplot/
       http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/gnuplot/
       This site is not accessible outside Australia/New Zealand.
  
       Anonymous ftp to ftp.cc.monash.edu.au:
       ftp://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-4.0.0.tar.gz
  
  EUROPE:
  
       Anonymous ftp to ftp.irisa.fr:
       ftp://ftp.irisa.fr/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-4.0.0.tar.gz
  
       Anonymous ftp to ftp.ucc.ie:
       ftp://ftp.ucc.ie/pub/gnuplot/gnuplot-4.0.0.tar.gz
  
  OTHER:
  
       Source and binary distributions for the Amiga will be available
       on Aminet http://ftp.wustl.edu/~aminet/ and its mirrors as
       gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0bin.lha
       gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0doc.lha
       gfx/misc/gnuplot-4.0.0src.lha
  
       Macintosh binaries will presumably be made available from the
       http://homepage.mac.com/gnuplot/ at some stage.

 What's New
 ==========
 
 The list of changes is immense this time, so only the highlights
 can be given here.  For the full details, see the NEWS file or the
 ChangeLog.  You'll quite probably have to (re-)read large parts of
 the documentation to learn all the details that have changed.
 
 Major changes visible to users:
 -------------------------------

 o Global Command syntax change: instead of 'set no...' it's now
   'unset ...'.
 o Commands 'set data style', 'set function style' and 'set linestyle'
   changed to 'set style {data|function|line}, respectively.
 o Colour-coded plots in 3D and simulated 2D through the new 'pm3d'
   plotting style.
 o Boxes drawn by plotstyles 'boxes', 'candlesticks' and boxed errorbar 
   styles can be filled with solid colors or hatch patterns.
 o New plot style 'with filledcurves' to fill an area defined by a curve
   in solid colour.
 o Windows, X11, OS/2 and GGI interactive graphical terminals now support
   interaction with the plot window by mouse and hotkeys.
 o The "enhanced" mode has been generalized from PostScript to some
   other terminal drivers.
 o 'set hidden3d' mode accepts non-grid data and hides them behind gridded
   surfaces plotted with them.
 o Several new terminal drivers: EMF, PDF, SVG, GGI, epslatex.
 o New function to query if a user-defined variable exists.
 o PNG and JPEG terminals using the GD library support libfreetype to 
   use true-type fonts.
 o 'set label' can output a point symbol the comment refers to, and the
   text itself can be rotated by arbitrary angles (on some terminals).
 o The color of text elements can be changed.
 o 'set size ratio' now affects 3D plots, too.
 o The 'dgrid3d' can be switched between thin-plate splines and 
   the older weighted averaging method, at compile time.
 o Some terminals now support 'koi8-r', ISO-Latin-2 and CP-852 
   encoding of user input.
 o Windows gnuplot recognizes the Unix/X11 style '-persist' option,
   and supports changing linewidth by core gnuplot commands.
 o MacOS now as a driver for 'aquaterm' integrated in the mainline source.
 o Datafile comment character, column separator and decimal sign
   can be changed.
 o Arrows can be drawn with relative coordinates for the head, and the
   heads can be filled.
 o Allows 'set timefmt' independantly for each axis, and supports new
   '%s' format for seconds-since-1970 input.
 o Even more documentation misprints have been fixed, thanks to
   Shigeharu TAKENO
 
 Internal changes:
 -----------------

 o Reorganization of the entire source tree.
 o Broken into considerably more source files than before.
 o Large sets of related global variables have been collected into 
   relatively few global data structures (the 'axis' array and a
   global 'key' data structure, e.g.).
 o The gnuplot_x11 driver no longer is installed in the PATH, to
   avoid confusion about it.
 o Scaling and ticking of time/date axes respects the fact that
   12 and 60 are not the same 10 or 100 much better.

 And, obviously, more bug fixes than could possibly fit into this
 narrow margin...

 THE CONTRIB SECTION
 ===================

 An improved gnuplot mode for X/Emacs by Bruce Ravel is available from
 http://feff.phys.washington.edu/~ravel/software/gnuplot-mode/Welcome.html.
 It has already been added to the development version of gnuplot.

 CREDITS
 =======

 The gnuplot team would like to thank all who have contributed to this
 release through discussions, suggestions, bug reports, and patches,
 on Usenet and mailing lists.  Special thanks go to Juergen von Hagen
 who maintained the gnuplot FAQ for q while.  To Ethan Merritt and
 Petr Mikulik for lots of work all over the place, and to Johannes
 Zellner for the original mouse support.
 
                                        -Thomas Williams-
                                        -Lars Hecking-
					-Hans-Bernhard Broeker-

 FOOTNOTES
 =========

 [1] The gif terminal driver requires third party software. Because the
     version of gd library currently at http://www.boutell.com/gd/ does
     NOT create gif images, we are providing gd library version 1.3 and 1.4
     at from the gnuplot distribution sites.

 [2] the png terminal driver requires third party software. The png graphics
     library and zlib can be downloaded from
     http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png/pngcode.html
     and
     http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/
     respectively. They are also available from the gnuplot distribution
     sites.


-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: web page for 4.0

[Lars H. <lhe...@us...>]

> Also there is no "gnuplot reference card" from docs/gpcard.tex -- if someone
> makes html or pdf file made from it and proofread it for gnuplot 4.0, then I
> put it there -- othewise no time.
 
 http://www.nmrc.ie/~lhecking/gpcard.pdf

 Don't know how to produce a html version.

Re: web page for 4.0

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

> ... is complete now (gnuplot.sf.net), just missing:
>
> -- Announcement for 4.0
> -- Better "Download" section?

Also there is no "gnuplot reference card" from docs/gpcard.tex -- if someone
makes html or pdf file made from it and proofread it for gnuplot 4.0, then I
put it there -- othewise no time.

--
PM

Re: web page mirroring

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

> That's fine with me, though the hard links should probably point to the
> .info canonically instead of sf, imho.  What is the "correct" way to update
> the others?  Are they CVS'ed or just edit the files on sf
> /groups/g/gn/gnuplot...?

Correct way is to edit docs/gnuplot.doc in CVS.

---
PM

web page for 4.0

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

... is complete now (gnuplot.sf.net), just missing:

-- Announcement for 4.0
-- Better "Download" section?

Please contribute.

--
PM

testing binary packages

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

...for Windows (including both wgnuplot.exe - based and Cygwin/X11 package)
are here:

	http://www.sci.muni.cz/~mikulik/gnuplot/gpw.zip
	http://www.sci.muni.cz/~mikulik/gnuplot/gpwx11.zip

Please proofread README.Windows.

--
PM

INSTALL and Environ variables

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

It seems that section "Environment variables" in file INSTALL does not
mention GDFONTPATH. Can someone add it?

Also, is there any other missing?

---
PM

Re: OK, here's the updated "version" splash text

[Lars H. <lhe...@us...>]

> And, as you all indubitably noted already, no, I did not draft an 
> Announcement yet, nor actually release the tarball yesterday night.
> It's become clear that the "last minute" changes will take at least
> one more day to settle.
 
 :)

 [If you are concerned with d/l bandwidth, that tarball is about 20% smaller
  when bzip2'd.]

> The main thing I currently consider release-critical would be that issue
> on Tru64 Unix's cc compiler regarding TBOOLEAN.  This really should have
> been found earlier (what else did I make all those release candidates
> for?), but in the current state of affairs, we can't seriously release the
> code.  We either have to put a comment into INSTALL telling users to use
> GCC on Tru64 instead of DEC cc, or find out what really happens there and
> fix it.
 
 I have only access to Tru64 4.0F, nothing newer, and compiler defaults and
 features may be different in newer versions.

 On 4.0F:

 o cc -std:  relaxed ANSI mode, __STDC__ = 0
 o cc -std0: K&R, __STDC__ undefined (default mode)
 o cc -std1: strict ANSI mode, __STDC__ = 1

 (I ___think___ -std may be default in 5.x.)

 configuring with either 'CC=cc' or 'CC="cc -std"' gives rise to warnings
 like this:

cc -std -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I..  -I../term -I../term -DBINDIR=\"/usr/local/bin\" -DX11_DRIVER_DIR=\"/usr/local/libexec/gnuplot/4.0\" -DCONTACT=\"gnu...@li...\" -DHELPFILE=\"/usr/local/share/gnuplot/4.0/gnuplot.gih\" -I/usr/local/include  -g -c `test -f 'axis.c' || echo './'`axis.c
cc: Warning: axis.c, line 188: In the definition of the function "axis_unlog_interval", the promoted type of checkrange is incompatible with the type of the corresponding parameter in a prior declaration. (promotmatchw)
    TBOOLEAN checkrange;
-------------^

 cpp analysis shows that TBOOLEAN gets defined to _Bool, which in turn is
 typedef'd to unsigned char.

Re: OK, here's the updated "version" splash text

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

> > >        This is gnuplot version 4.0.  Please refer to the documentation
> > >        for command syntax changes. The old syntax will be accepted throughout
> > >        the 4.0 series, but all save files use the new syntax.
> 
> please use always either single space like ". " or double space ".  ".

Agreed.

> > >        Type `help` to access the on-line reference manual
> 
> I would like more to see "." at the end of this sentence.

Agreed.

> > >        The gnuplot FAQ is available from
> > >                http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/
> 
> What about:
> 
> 	   See also the gnuplot FAQ available from
> 
> as all the surrounding sentences start with a verb too?

No.  A little variation in style never hurt anybody ;-)

And, as you all indubitably noted already, no, I did not draft an 
Announcement yet, nor actually release the tarball yesterday night.
It's become clear that the "last minute" changes will take at least
one more day to settle.

The main thing I currently consider release-critical would be that issue
on Tru64 Unix's cc compiler regarding TBOOLEAN.  This really should have
been found earlier (what else did I make all those release candidates
for?), but in the current state of affairs, we can't seriously release the
code.  We either have to put a comment into INSTALL telling users to use
GCC on Tru64 instead of DEC cc, or find out what really happens there and
fix it.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: OK, here's the updated "version" splash text

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

Well, I have some comments too:

> >        G N U P L O T
> >        Version 4.0 patchlevel 0
> >        last modified Wed Apr 14 14:46:24 CEST 2004
> >        System: Linux 2.4.20-4GB-athlon
> >
> >        Copyright (C) 1986 - 1993, 1998, 2004
> >        Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others
> >
> >        This is gnuplot version 4.0.  Please refer to the documentation
> >        for command syntax changes. The old syntax will be accepted throughout
> >        the 4.0 series, but all save files use the new syntax.

please use always either single space like ". " or double space ".  ".

> >        Type `help` to access the on-line reference manual

I would like more to see "." at the end of this sentence.

> >        The gnuplot FAQ is available from
> >                http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/

What about:

	   See also the gnuplot FAQ available from

as all the surrounding sentences start with a verb too?


********


Now, I've updated the head of NEWS. Please proofread.

---
PM

Re: web page mirroring

[Clark G. <ga...@di...>]

Petr Mikulik wrote:
>>I have mirrored the current sf page to http://sf.gnuplot.info/ for your
>>testing pleasure.  I've identified the following files with non-relative
>>internal links (some of these may be legitimate; most should be changed):
>>
>>(badger)/home/httpd/htdocs/gnuplot/sf > find . -name \*.htm\* -exec grep -l
>>gnuplot.sourceforge.net {} \;
>>./index.html
>>./docs/gnuplot.html
>>./screenshots/index.html
>>./faq/faq.html
>>./development/index.html
>>./demo/index.html
>>
>>I've edited the files on the mirror to have relative links; check it out and
>>see if I broke anything.
>>At this time, this is a static mirror.  Once we are happy with the process,
>>I can cron it.
> 
> 
> It seems OK.
> 
> Those hard links in gnuplot.html and faq.html are hardcoded in cvs version
> of these files gnuplot.doc and faq.tex. Changes to relate links would break
> things if someone "Save as" these files for local use, so I would rather let
> them intact.

That's fine with me, though the hard links should probably point to the 
.info canonically instead of sf, imho.  What is the "correct" way to update 
the others?  Are they CVS'ed or just edit the files on sf 
/groups/g/gn/gnuplot...?

--ckg

Re: Finally: 4.0 tagged, tarred and ready to test.

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, Ethan Merritt wrote:

> On Wednesday 14 April 2004 05:55 am, Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:
> > On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Ethan Merritt wrote:
> > > Building on Tru64 using DEC cc generates a large number of
> > > compiler warnings due to the re-definition of TBOOLEAN.
> >
> > Not of TBOOLEAN itself, I trust it, but of the system datatype __Bool or
> > similar.  What were the results of configure tests on __Bool and
> > <stdbool.h>?
[...]
> ac_cv_header_stdbool_h=no
> ac_cv_type__Bool=no

In that case, I don't quite see why it would fail this way.

I've lost access to the Digital Unix boxes round here, so it's a bit tough
to guess what might be going on here.  This would be an incompatibility
between DEC cc and GNU autoconf's suggestion how to handle booleans.

Can you have a look at preprocessor output to see what the affected
prototypes and declarations actually come out as?

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

Re: OK, here's the updated "version" splash text

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

You're going to hate me for this, but I think the "throughout" might 
look better at the start of the third line of the paragraph as opposed 
to the end of the second line.

Dan


Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:

>Ok, then,
>
>I've modified show.c:show_version() and version.c, and the splash screen
>now looks like this:
>
>        G N U P L O T
>        Version 4.0 patchlevel 0
>        last modified Wed Apr 14 14:46:24 CEST 2004
>        System: Linux 2.4.20-4GB-athlon
>
>        Copyright (C) 1986 - 1993, 1998, 2004
>        Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others
>
>        This is gnuplot version 4.0.  Please refer to the documentation
>        for command syntax changes. The old syntax will be accepted throughout
>        the 4.0 series, but all save files use the new syntax.
>
>        Type `help` to access the on-line reference manual
>        The gnuplot FAQ is available from
>                http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/
>
>        Send comments and requests for help to
>                <gnu...@li...>
>        Send bugs, suggestions and mods to
>                <gnu...@li...>
>
>
>I.e. the "pre-release of version 4.0" is revised, and the mailing lists
>shown are now the release-version ones, and they're wrapped over to a line
>for themselves to keep the whole display withing 80 columns.  I could have
>used the sf.net alias instead, but think it looks better this way.
>
>  
>

-- 

Dan Sebald
email: daniel DOT sebald AT ieee DOT org
URL: http://acer-access DOT com/~dsebald AT acer-access DOT com/

Re: Feature Request

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

Ethan Merritt wrote:

>>Justace
>>
>>P.S.  The example plot is at the following address:
>>
>>http://math.smsu.edu/~prophecy/exampleplot.eps
>>    
>>
>
>That is a nice visual effect.
>

I agree.

Dan