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

Re: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

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

Ethan Merritt wrote:

>On Friday 13 February 2004 09:49 am, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
>  
>
>>And there was something Ethan wrote for
>>converting the demos to html, if I remember correctly...  If this isn't
>>already under CVS, perhaps that is where it could go.
>>    
>>
>
>The script is in CVS as ~/demo/webify.pl
>The resulting output is currently on
>	http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo
>
>Since then I have added more stuff to the script; I will update
>the web site with the new output this weekend.
>

Looks good, and the added graph paper-like background is a nice touch; 
very professional. -- Dan

Re: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

[Ethan M. <merritt@u.washington.edu>]

On Friday 13 February 2004 09:49 am, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
> And there was something Ethan wrote for
> converting the demos to html, if I remember correctly...  If this isn't
> already under CVS, perhaps that is where it could go.

The script is in CVS as ~/demo/webify.pl
The resulting output is currently on
	http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo

Since then I have added more stuff to the script; I will update
the web site with the new output this weekend.


-- 
Ethan A Merritt       merritt@u.washington.edu
Biomolecular Structure Center    (206)543-1421
Mailstop 357742
University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195

Re: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

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

> Nice set of screen shots.  And there was something Ethan wrote for
> converting the demos to html, if I remember correctly...

It is linked from screenshots.html: "Screenshots from gnuplot demos"
... but the correct URL is http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/

Re: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

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

Petr Mikulik wrote:

>>>Further, gnuplot deserves new web page. I've made some work for that. Please
>>>have a look at
>>>    physics.muni.cz/~mikulik/gp/gpweb-001.zip
>>>      
>>>
>>Why post a .zip file?  It would make a good deal more sense to put the
>>actual pages on your web.
>>

Nice set of screen shots.  And there was something Ethan wrote for 
converting the demos to html, if I remember correctly...  If this isn't 
already under CVS, perhaps that is where it could go.  Maybe a module 
name like "gnuplot-homepage" or something.  (The SourceForge subheading 
is "Home Page".)  And further still any screen shots etc. should perhaps 
be subcategorized under another module so that if someone wants to 
modify the web page, he or she can just download the latest html portion 
and not have to download all the images.

Dan

Re: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

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

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> And is there an archive of gnuplot-beta?

http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.graphics.gnuplot.devel

I don't know since when they archive us, though.  511 mails in all seems a
bit few.

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

Re: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

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

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> > And we really should go through *all* the open bugs currently listed on SF
> > and check their status, fix those that are either fixed or non-bugs, and
> 
> Mostly to be closed, as they refer to 3.7.3, for example.

Some of them do --- but that doesn't mean the same issues don't still 
exist in 3.8-current, too.

> I think there is no serious bug for 3.8k -- bug please check it.

Depends on what you call "serious".  I consider the log-axis ticking for
short ranges pretty serious --- but it's a major endeavour to change that,
which Jim van Zandt has just started to investigate.  [BTW: any news on
that, Jim?]

> I don't want it gets indexed by web spiders.

Put password protection on it, then, and mail the password.

> And is there an archive of gnuplot-beta?

There used to be one, but I forgot where, and I have no whether it's still
active.  Dave or Clark must know --- the subscription address of any
archiver should have been pretty obvious among the addresses they moved
from dartmouth to sourceforge last November.

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

Re: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

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

> And we really should go through *all* the open bugs currently listed on SF
> and check their status, fix those that are either fixed or non-bugs, and

Mostly to be closed, as they refer to 3.7.3, for example.
I think there is no serious bug for 3.8k -- bug please check it.


> > Optional: release gnuplot-3.8k right now as 4.0 prerelease,
>
> I'm all for it.  IIRC, Lars can make a 3.8k release tarball by a single
> 'make' call, anytime.
>
> > and 4.0 when all the files with new version 4 are edited.
>
> ... and 3.8k has had at least a week or two to give people a chance to
> actually test it, and shake out the bugs.


Then 3.8k should be released today.


> > Further, gnuplot deserves new web page. I've made some work for that. Please
> > have a look at
> >     physics.muni.cz/~mikulik/gp/gpweb-001.zip
>
> Why post a .zip file?  It would make a good deal more sense to put the
> actual pages on your web.

I don't want it gets indexed by web spiders.
It is published like that for people to contribute, not only to have a look.


> > Can someone contribute link to an archive of the gnuplot newsgroups?
>
> http://groups.google.com ?

Yes, Ethan has already submitted a link.

And is there an archive of gnuplot-beta?

---
pm

Re: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

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

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> I propose to release gnuplot 4.0 now -- within 1 or 2 weeks max.
> 
> From the implementation point of view, the following should be done:
> 
> * Fix gplt_x11.c to compile on OS/2 again (my mail from few minutes ago)
> 
> * SF Bug "885279 Reading '%s' timefmt is not 64 bit safe" to be included
>   or not?

And we really should go through *all* the open bugs currently listed on SF
and check their status, fix those that are either fixed or non-bugs, and
consider what to do with the others.  Some will probably remain unchanged
(e.g.  my own long-time favourite, "short log axes get bad autotics").

> Optional: release gnuplot-3.8k right now as 4.0 prerelease, 

I'm all for it.  IIRC, Lars can make a 3.8k release tarball by a single
'make' call, anytime.

> and 4.0 when all the files with new version 4 are edited.

... and 3.8k has had at least a week or two to give people a chance to
actually test it, and shake out the bugs.

> Further, gnuplot deserves new web page. I've made some work for that. Please
> have a look at
>     physics.muni.cz/~mikulik/gp/gpweb-001.zip

Why post a .zip file?  It would make a good deal more sense to put the
actual pages on your web.

> Can someone contribute link to an archive of the gnuplot newsgroups?

http://groups.google.com ?

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

Re: faq: which terminal for OpenOffice.org

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

> > In other words: the text, as it is right now, mostly fits OpenOffice.org.
> 
> png and bitmaps are fine; or vectorial formats, I've tried gnuplot + OO on
> Linux:
> - emf is OK, in colors
> - dxf lacks many features
> - wmf terminal is not available on gnuplot/Linux

My fault --- we don't actually have a wmf driver. The only way to get WMF
from gnuplot is as the clipboard content when running the MS Windows
version ("Copy to Clipboard" copies two versions of the plot: a bitmap, 
and a WMF, which is essentially just a dump of drawing operations to a 
data structure).

> Can someone try gnuplot with wmf and put it onto OO? 

I did.  OOo --- actually *any* wordprocessor on Windows worth bothering
with --- can paste the WMF from gnuplot nicely.

> What are differences to emf? 

It's not a file, and it can be used with wgnuplot only.

> Which has smaller size and more features => thus what we can recommend?

EMF has more features, but may not be supported on surviving 16-bit
Windows installations --- it's essentially the designated successor of WMF
for the NT family of Windows.

> Some (most?) word processors do not preview the actual image in the eps
> file, and you have to add the preview image yourself. You can use the GSView
> viewer for this (available for OS/2, Windows and X11), or ??? some Unix ps
> tool???. 

That "Unix ps tool" exists on all installations that have ghostscript, and
it's called ps2epsi.  But MS Word and others seem not to be able to
understand the preview image it embeds :-(

> Into some office applications, like OpenOffice.org, or into applications in
> the Windows world, you can insert vectorial images produces by the emf or
> wmf terminal type.

Remove wmf as a "terminal type" here.

> With \TeX, it depends on what you use to print your dvi files...

> With \TeX processed by pdftex or pdflatex, you can use png and pdf terminal
> types.

JPG should probably work, too.  An even better choice with pdflatex could
be the epslatex terminal, after converting the eps part to PDF externally
(the TeX part can remain unchanged).

> ???? Metapost ??? Metafont ???

Mention them and refer to their terminal driver docs.  No point repeating
it all here.

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

Re: Bug 885279 (was: Release plan for gnuplot 4.0)

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

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> I propose to release gnuplot 4.0 now -- within 1 or 2 weeks max.
> 
> From the implementation point of view, the following should be done:
> 
> * Fix gplt_x11.c to compile on OS/2 again (my mail from few minutes ago)
> 
> * SF Bug "885279 Reading '%s' timefmt is not 64 bit safe" to be included
>   or not?

Hmm... 

1) no feedback from poster when asked to describe the circumstances of the
failure --- i.e. we don't know if there's anything actually broken to be
fixed.  In particular, I insist on an explain why gnuplot seemed to work
flawlessly on 64-bit platforms so far.

2) I don't like the way it's implemented.

So I'm going to check in a different patch.  The pointer cast in question
really is atrocious, now I'm looking at it.  I'll put in a time_t
variable, but keep read_int as the main routine to do the reading.

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

Re: gplt_x11.c: undeclared SELECT_TYPE_ARG1

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

> > > > Compiling gplt_x11.c fails under OS/2 -- I have XFree86 3.3.2 -- can someone
> > > > help? I guess this is some kind of new code -- there are no SELECT_TYPE_*
> > > > constants in any X11 header file.
> > >
> > >  config/config.* need to be updated.
> >
> > But how?
>
> Read the comments, understand them, and then turn the #undef into a
> #define with the correct right-hand side (a type, enclosed in
> parentheses).  Just as 'configure' will do.  A "man select" or a peek
> into your platforms <unistd.h> or <sys/select.h> should clarify what to
> put there.

Aha, these are types of parameters 1, 2-4, 5 for function select()!

---
pm

Re: gplt_x11.c: undeclared SELECT_TYPE_ARG1

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

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> > > Compiling gplt_x11.c fails under OS/2 -- I have XFree86 3.3.2 -- can someone
> > > help? I guess this is some kind of new code -- there are no SELECT_TYPE_*
> > > constants in any X11 header file.
> >
> >  config/config.* need to be updated.
> 
> But how?

Read the comments, understand them, and then turn the #undef into a
#define with the correct right-hand side (a type, enclosed in
parentheses).  Just as 'configure' will do.  A "man select" or a peek
into your platforms <unistd.h> or <sys/select.h> should clarify what to
put there.

If all else fails, it may help to run ./configure on an OS/2 box
and see what it put into config.h.

> How should I define it? Or should rather be the code using it be surrounded
> by #ifdef PIPE_IPC?? 

I don't think so.

> What does that problematic code mean?

It uses the select() system call to wait either for the state of one of
several open files to change, or a pre-set time to expire (whichever
happens first).  As far as I can see, OS2_IPC has only one file handle to
watch (X11_ipc, which is gnuplot_x11's input pipe from gnuplot main),
PIPE_IPC has a second one: the channel to send back mouse events etc. to
gnuplot.

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

Re: gplt_x11.c: undeclared SELECT_TYPE_ARG1

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

> I see config.hin, I see config.amg -- both do
> 	#undef SELECT_TYPE_...
> 
> but gplt_x11.c fails because it is undefined!
 
 You need to define the macros as appropriate. config.amg is for the native
 Amiga SAS compiler, no X, no gplt_x11.

Re: gplt_x11.c: undeclared SELECT_TYPE_ARG1

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

> > Compiling gplt_x11.c fails under OS/2 -- I have XFree86 3.3.2 -- can someone
> > help? I guess this is some kind of new code -- there are no SELECT_TYPE_*
> > constants in any X11 header file.
>
>  config/config.* need to be updated.

But how?

> They're supposed to be provided by autoconf.  See config.hin.  You'll
> have to refresh config/config.os2 accordingly.

I see config.hin, I see config.amg -- both do
	#undef SELECT_TYPE_...

but gplt_x11.c fails because it is undefined!

How should I define it? Or should rather be the code using it be surrounded
by #ifdef PIPE_IPC?? What does that problematic code mean?

---
pm

Re: using columns for labels

[Giuseppe G. N. A. <Giu...@ct...>]

> See patch set #595850 on SourceForge or pull it from my website

Exactly what I needed! (I just saw some snapshots on your website).

Thanks everybody.

Giuseppe.

Re: using columns for labels

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

Giuseppe G. N. Angilella wrote:

>Column 3 may be a text string. Say something like:
>
>1 0.088 H
>2 0.205 He
>3 0.542 Li
>4 1.82  Be
>5 2.47  B
>

May need to designate strings in file as "H", "He", "Li", "Be", "B". 
 Otherwise there would be no way of having, say, a blank label or white 
space in a string.

Dan

Re: using columns for labels

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

Giuseppe G. N. Angilella wrote:

>Hi Dan,
>
>sorry for having been unclear.
>
>  
>
>>What are you trying to plot?  Column 3 is a number and you want to 
>>convert it to text so that the text is plotted on the screen?
>>    
>>
>
>Column 3 may be a text string. Say something like:
>
>1 0.088 H
>2 0.205 He
>3 0.542 Li
>4 1.82  Be
>5 2.47  B
>...
>
>plot 'above.dat' u 1:2 w p t '$3'
>
>(mass densities of the elements, vs the atomic number, with the element's 
>name as a label for each point.)
>
>I am aware that in the example above there would not be enough symbols for 
>all the elements. Indeed, it would be useful if it could be possible to 
>iterate a command like
>
>ex=0.1
>ey=0.1
>
>set label '$3' at $1+ex,$2+ey
>
>for each line in above.dat, so that the symbol of the element appears 0.1 
>units at the right and 0.1 units at the top of each point in the plot.
>

Sounds like something useful.  Perhaps a "with labels" option?  It might 
be nice to not tie it to something else having to be plotted.  The 
default coordinates you suggest could perhaps be generated from a 
formula, e.g., $2+0.1.  Something to think about.  (Has this sort of 
thing been discussed here before?  It seems vaguely familiar.)

Dan

Re: gplt_x11.c: undeclared SELECT_TYPE_ARG1

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

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> Compiling gplt_x11.c fails under OS/2 -- I have XFree86 3.3.2 -- can someone
> help? I guess this is some kind of new code -- there are no SELECT_TYPE_*
> constants in any X11 header file.

They're supposed to be provided by autoconf.  See config.hin.  You'll
have to refresh config/config.os2 accordingly.

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

Re: using columns for labels

[Giuseppe G. N. A. <Giu...@ct...>]

Hi Dan,

sorry for having been unclear.

> What are you trying to plot?  Column 3 is a number and you want to 
> convert it to text so that the text is plotted on the screen?

Column 3 may be a text string. Say something like:

1 0.088 H
2 0.205 He
3 0.542 Li
4 1.82  Be
5 2.47  B
...

plot 'above.dat' u 1:2 w p t '$3'

(mass densities of the elements, vs the atomic number, with the element's 
name as a label for each point.)

I am aware that in the example above there would not be enough symbols for 
all the elements. Indeed, it would be useful if it could be possible to 
iterate a command like

ex=0.1
ey=0.1

set label '$3' at $1+ex,$2+ey

for each line in above.dat, so that the symbol of the element appears 0.1 
units at the right and 0.1 units at the top of each point in the plot.

Presently, I don't see any other way than generating a file labels.gnu
with the help of some C/Fortran code, and then loading it before plotting
the points with gnuplot.

Thanks again.

Giuseppe.

Re: gplt_x11.c: undeclared SELECT_TYPE_ARG1

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

Petr Mikulik writes:
> Compiling gplt_x11.c fails under OS/2 -- I have XFree86 3.3.2 -- can someone
> help? I guess this is some kind of new code -- there are no SELECT_TYPE_*
> constants in any X11 header file.
 
 config/config.* need to be updated.

2004-01-07  Lars Hecking  <lhe...@nm...>

        * configure.in, configure.vms, src/fit.c, src/gplt_x11.c, src/stdfn.h,
        term/ggi.trm, term/x11.trm: Use AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES instead of
        AC_FUNC_SELECT and related changes.

        * config/config.amg: Updated.

Release plan for gnuplot 4.0

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

I propose to release gnuplot 4.0 now -- within 1 or 2 weeks max.

From the implementation point of view, the following should be done:

* Fix gplt_x11.c to compile on OS/2 again (my mail from few minutes ago)

* SF Bug "885279 Reading '%s' timefmt is not 64 bit safe" to be included
  or not?


Other changes needed (Lars probably knows best what to change):
* the VERSION, README, faq/ et al files need to be upgraded to 4.0.
* Web page should be updated.


Optional: release gnuplot-3.8k right now as 4.0 prerelease, and 4.0 when
all the files with new version 4 are edited.


***

Further, gnuplot deserves new web page. I've made some work for that. Please
have a look at
    physics.muni.cz/~mikulik/gp/gpweb-001.zip

It should replace the current www.gnuplot.info and gnuplot.sf.net.
I will also close my gnuplot section on my web page -- I contributed its
info into the proposed main gnuplot web. Maybe someone also wants to do this
as well.

You are welcome to send patches or replacements etc to me. But avoid writing
"please write about ..." -- do it yourself and send me the solution. Well,
the most economic way for me is if somebody else takes care about the web
... especially, if people don't like my proposed design.

The proposed images for the main site could be replaced by some more
beautiful, like here:
http://ayapin.film.s.dendai.ac.jp/~matuda/Gnuplot/pm3d.html
You can propose something.

Can someone contribute link to an archive of the gnuplot newsgroups?

Have fun too.

---
Petr Mikulik

gplt_x11.c: undeclared SELECT_TYPE_ARG1

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

Compiling gplt_x11.c fails under OS/2 -- I have XFree86 3.3.2 -- can someone
help? I guess this is some kind of new code -- there are no SELECT_TYPE_*
constants in any X11 header file.


gcc -DOS2 -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -ffloat-store -O4 -mpentium -Wall
-Wno-unused -Wno-comment -Zmt -DPM3D -Zmt -DUSE_MOUSE -DHAVE_CONFIG_H
 -ffloat-store -IE:/XFree86/include -c -o gplt_x11.o gplt_x11.c

gplt_x11.c: In function `mainloop':
gplt_x11.c:724: `SELECT_TYPE_ARG1' undeclared (first use in this function)
gplt_x11.c:724: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
gplt_x11.c:724: for each function it appears in.)
gplt_x11.c:724: parse error before `nfds'
gplt_x11.c:741: `nfds' undeclared (first use in this function)
gplt_x11.c:784: `SELECT_TYPE_ARG234' undeclared (first use in this function)
gplt_x11.c:784: `SELECT_TYPE_ARG5' undeclared (first use in this function)
gplt_x11.c:784: parse error before `timer'
gplt_x11.c:723: warning: `nf' might be used uninitialized in this function
make: *** [gplt_x11.o] Error 1

using columns for labels

[Giuseppe G. N. A. <Giu...@ct...>]

Hi,

how can one use the content (in general, an alphanumeric one) of a given 
column to produce a label?

Say, something of the kind:

plot 'datafile.dat' u 1:2 t "$3" w p

where $3 would be expected to pick the content of the 3rd column
(presently, it just gives the string $3 invariably).

Thanks.

Giuseppe.

Re: faq: which terminal for OpenOffice.org

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

Except for OO, please contribute TeX and metapost/font very below...


> > There is a question "How do I include my graphs in <word processor>?"
> > I think it would be useful to complete it by "in OpenOffice.org". Can
> > someone worked this out?
>
> OpenOffice on Windows supports copy-paste from gnuplot, and in general,
> OOo can handle several file formats gnuplot generates: EMF, WMF, EPS (with
> the usual caveat that you need a PS printer), DXF and a whole slew of
> pixel formats (PNG, P[BGP]M, GIF, JPG).  The major difference between OOo
> and MS Office is that there don't seem to be import filters for CGM, HPGL
> or CorelDraw images.  But maybe I just didn't look closely enough.
>
> In other words: the text, as it is right now, mostly fits OpenOffice.org.

png and bitmaps are fine; or vectorial formats, I've tried gnuplot + OO on
Linux:
- emf is OK, in colors
- dxf lacks many features
- wmf terminal is not available on gnuplot/Linux

Can someone try gnuplot with wmf and put it onto OO? What are differences to
emf? Which has smaller size and more features => thus what we can recommend?
If the analysis is positive, wmf generation should be switched on for every
platform.

***

I propose these changes to the FAQ -- please update it as necessary so that
I can commit it:

Many word processors can use Encapsulated PostScript for graphs.
This can be generated by the \verb+set terminal postscript eps [color]+
command.
Note that it is a good idea to check and correct the bounding box of the
graphs in the eps files (manually or by the fixbb script from gnuplot
webpage), as you have to correct this box for any eps figure produced by
whichever program.
Some (most?) word processors do not preview the actual image in the eps
file, and you have to add the preview image yourself. You can use the GSView
viewer for this (available for OS/2, Windows and X11), or ??? some Unix ps
tool???. Note that the preview image increases size of the eps file; the
smallest increase you may get by choosing Tiff 6 Packbits.

Into some office applications, like OpenOffice.org, or into applications in
the Windows world, you can insert vectorial images produces by the emf or
wmf terminal type.

With \TeX, it depends on what you use to print your dvi files...

With \TeX processed by pdftex or pdflatex, you can use png and pdf terminal
types.


???? Metapost ??? Metafont ???

Re: faq: which terminal for OpenOffice.org

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

On Tue, 10 Feb 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> I've made some updates to faq.
> 
> There is a question "How do I include my graphs in <word processor>?"
> I think it would be useful to complete it by "in OpenOffice.org". Can
> someone worked this out?

OpenOffice on Windows supports copy-paste from gnuplot, and in general,
OOo can handle several file formats gnuplot generates: EMF, WMF, EPS (with
the usual caveat that you need a PS printer), DXF and a whole slew of
pixel formats (PNG, P[BGP]M, GIF, JPG).  The major difference between OOo
and MS Office is that there don't seem to be import filters for CGM, HPGL
or CorelDraw images.  But maybe I just didn't look closely enough.

In other words: the text, as it is right now, mostly fits OpenOffice.org.

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