gnuplot-beta

Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

Hello,

in case some of us forgot, the release target date I agreed us upon was
end of *this* week?

So, what's left to do that really has to be done before then?

*) Lars: contact Tom Williams (and whoever else you contacted last
   time) for the formal "blessing" according to the gnuplot Copyright
   statement.

*) Lars also seems to be the only person who can reliably generate a
   working 'gnuplot.texi' (my boxes are all either too old or
   too new to run doc2texi.el).  

*) HB: update Copyright years in all source files (!).

*) HB or Lars make a source tarball.

   Circulate that in private (Lars' ftp server?  Or the project home
   directory at sf.net?) to check for last-minute glitches.

*) Distribute work on binary packages for PCs.  

   One important note: I don't think we can provide binaries with
   the pdf driver compiled in.  It's "non-commercial use only".

   I would volunteer building the 32-bit DOS version (DJGPP).
   Cygwin by Petr (both Unix gnuplot/X11 and Win32 wgnuplot/pgnuplot,
                   in a single or two separate packages)?
   MacOS by Per?
   'docs tarball' by Lars?
   All ready by, let's say, Friday this week?

*) For previous releases, Lars provided digital signatures.  I think
   this should happen for this one, too.

*) Upload on Saturday, announcement ASAP.

If you spot major omission or want to reject assignments, please say so.

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

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

> *) Lars: contact Tom Williams (and whoever else you contacted last
>    time) for the formal "blessing" according to the gnuplot Copyright
>    statement.
 
 In progress - do we have some form of "what's new in 4.0" that I can
 attach?

> *) Lars also seems to be the only person who can reliably generate a
>    working 'gnuplot.texi' (my boxes are all either too old or
>    too new to run doc2texi.el).  
 
 Strange, I usually keep XEmacs around here quite up to date.

 gnuplot.texi should be up to date, too. I'm running a make to see if there
 are changes.

> *) HB or Lars make a source tarball.
> 
>    Circulate that in private (Lars' ftp server?  Or the project home
>    directory at sf.net?) to check for last-minute glitches.
 
 Ok.

>    'docs tarball' by Lars?

 Ok.

>    All ready by, let's say, Friday this week?

 You forgot that Easter is coming up. I will be out of the office
 from Friday to Monday, inclusive.

> *) For previous releases, Lars provided digital signatures.  I think
>    this should happen for this one, too.
 
 Ok.

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

Lars Hecking wrote:

>>*) Lars: contact Tom Williams (and whoever else you contacted last
>>   time) for the formal "blessing" according to the gnuplot Copyright
>>   statement.
>>    
>>
> 
> In progress - do we have some form of "what's new in 4.0" that I can
> attach?
>  
>

Someone put a list of new items at:

http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/docs/gnuplot.html#What_is_New_in_Version_4.0


Dan

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

[Per P. <per...@ma...>]

On Apr 5, 2004, at 19:55, Lars Hecking wrote:

>
>> *) Lars also seems to be the only person who can reliably generate a
>>    working 'gnuplot.texi' (my boxes are all either too old or
>>    too new to run doc2texi.el).
>
>  Strange, I usually keep XEmacs around here quite up to date.
>
>  gnuplot.texi should be up to date, too. I'm running a make to see if 
> there
>  are changes.

Petr asked me to add aquaterm refs to the pm3d section etc., I'll do 
that ASAP but the connection to SF CVS is shaky right now.
I intend to touch NEWS and gnuplot.doc within the hour.

/Per

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

On Monday 05 April 2004 10:55 am, Lars Hecking wrote:
>On Monday 05 April 2004 10:35 am, Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:
>
> > *) Lars also seems to be the only person who can reliably generate a
> >    working 'gnuplot.texi' (my boxes are all either too old or
> >    too new to run doc2texi.el).
>
>  Strange, I usually keep XEmacs around here quite up to date.

I have never had any trouble generating gnuplot.texi locally,
but I cannot say whether once generated it works for everyone else. 

The only problem/annoyance I have is that the 'make' process tries
to update files in the system directory /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/,
which means that I get error messages if I'm not building as root.
Seems to be harmless, though.


As to the rest of it - great!  I look forward to the release.

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

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

> The only problem/annoyance I have is that the 'make' process tries
> to update files in the system directory /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/,
> which means that I get error messages if I'm not building as root.
> Seems to be harmless, though.
 
 I don't get that here either, and I never ever build as root.

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

[Per P. <per...@ma...>]

On Apr 5, 2004, at 19:35, Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:

> *) Distribute work on binary packages for PCs.

[snip]

>    MacOS by Per?

Sorry, no time to do that now (I'm not really sure of the proper way to 
do it). Will have to wait until after the release.
OTOH, nobody is expecting a binary for Mac OS X, I think.

/Per

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

> Sorry, no time to do that now (I'm not really sure of the proper way to 
> do it). Will have to wait until after the release.
> OTOH, nobody is expecting a binary for Mac OS X, I think.
 
 Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, either. That surprise worked
 pretty well ;-)

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

> *) HB or Lars make a source tarball.
>
>    Circulate that in private (Lars' ftp server?  Or the project home
>    directory at sf.net?) to check for last-minute glitches.

Where do the released files go?
- sourceforge
- darthmouth??
- CTAN

> *) Distribute work on binary packages for PCs.
>
>    One important note: I don't think we can provide binaries with
>    the pdf driver compiled in.  It's "non-commercial use only".

If someone proofs this, then binaries will be without this feature.

>    I would volunteer building the 32-bit DOS version (DJGPP).
>    Cygwin by Petr (both Unix gnuplot/X11 and Win32 wgnuplot/pgnuplot,
>                    in a single or two separate packages)?

I can organize the following:

1. OS/2 binary.

2. Mingw binary -- probably with two executables: one normal, the other with
PIPES defined for more unixish users

3. Cygwin+X11 by ./configure; make

>    'docs tarball' by Lars?

A prerelease of 1. and 2. is at www.sci.muni.cz/~mikulik/gnuplot/
I think FAQ should be replaced by FAQ.html
Any other thing proposed to be there?

>    All ready by, let's say, Friday this week?

Yes, till Friday.


Other comments:


*) File README.1st:

This text is to be deleted?

 Note 3
 ------
 some files from Bruce Ravel's gnuplot-mode distribution have
   not been included here, namely

   o INSTALL              (covered by gnuplot install instructions)
   o Win9x/INSTALL.Win9x
   o Win9x/pgnuplot.c     (already in src/win)
   o gnuplot.info         (can be created from docs/gnuplot.texi)
   o gpelcard.ps          (can be created from lisp/gpelcard.tex)
   o install-sh, mkinstalldirs  (provided by gnuplot)


*) README (several of them) vs README.html:
I remember someone has contributed html-ized version of README, where is
its end nowadays?

*) INSTALL (several of them):
Should be unified too.

*) FAQ vs FAQ.html:
I would prefer to enclose FAQ.html instead of the plain text FAQ.
I will please majority of users I guess.
Anyway, should the FAQ file be in gnuplot sources anyway? Maybe it could be
removed from there.


*) BUGS:
A note about Atari, Lars can remove that?


---
PM

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

> Where do the released files go?
> - sourceforge
> - darthmouth??
> - CTAN
 
 I think all major sites (mirror.ac.uk, CTAN) are mirroring from UCC.

> *) README (several of them) vs README.html:
> I remember someone has contributed html-ized version of README, where is
> its end nowadays?
 
 I am strictly against replaing plain-text READMEs with html versions.

> *) FAQ vs FAQ.html:
> I would prefer to enclose FAQ.html instead of the plain text FAQ.

 Dto.

> I will please majority of users I guess.
> Anyway, should the FAQ file be in gnuplot sources anyway? Maybe it could be
> removed from there.
 
 I think it's good style to include it, but I'm not feeling strongly about it.

> *) BUGS:
> A note about Atari, Lars can remove that?
 
 Should probably go. Entry 8 should probably move to the FAQ.

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

> > Where do the released files go?
> > - sourceforge
> > - darthmouth??
> > - CTAN
>
>  I think all major sites (mirror.ac.uk, CTAN) are mirroring from UCC.

Is the information in README and INSTALL still up-to-date? Should
gnuplot.sf.net / Files be mentioned too?

> > *) FAQ vs FAQ.html:
> > I would prefer to enclose FAQ.html instead of the plain text FAQ.
>
>  Dto.

I think that for OS/2 and Windows distributions, there will be FAQ.html.
Web browser is always on these platforms.

> > *) BUGS:
> > A note about Atari, Lars can remove that?
>
>  Should probably go. Entry 8 should probably move to the FAQ.

already cleaned-up

---
PM

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

On Monday 05 April 2004 12:02 pm, Petr Mikulik wrote:
>
> > *) Distribute work on binary packages for PCs.
> >
> >    One important note: I don't think we can provide binaries with
> >    the pdf driver compiled in.  It's "non-commercial use only".

I'm not so sure.  I think we are OK to include it ourselves since
gnuplot source code is available, and since gnuplot itself is not
a commercial product.   A problem could arise, however, if 3rd
parties used a gnuplot binary for commercial development.
I will not venture an opinion on 3rd party use of a gnuplot for
commercial non-development work.

The only way to be certain is to ask them:

	License inquiries: sa...@pd...


Here are is the license description from the readme of pdflib
version 4.0.3

Licensing and Copyright
=======================
THIS IS NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN OR FREEWARE SOFTWARE!

PDFlib is available under two different licensing terms which are
substantially different, and meet the needs of different developer groups.
Please take the time to read the short summaries below in order to decide
which one applies to your development.


The Aladdin Free Public License
-------------------------------
This license applies to the main PDFlib package, but not to the
ActiveX, .NET, and EBCDIC editions or any of our precompiled
binary versions (all of these are only
available under the terms of the commercial PDFlib license). The
complete text of the license agreement can be found in the
file aladdin-license.pdf. In short and non-legal terms:

- You may develop free software with PDFlib, provided you make your source
  code available.
- You may develop software for your own use with PDFlib, as long as you
  don't sell it.
- You may redistribute PDFlib non-commercially.
- You may redistribute PDFlib on digital media if the complete contents of
  the media are freely redistributable.
  
Only the text in the file doc/aladdin-license.pdf is considered to completely
describe the licensing conditions. Project managers please note: Using PDFlib
in your commercial projects is not covered by the Aladdin license, and
effectively means jeopardizing your project through unlicensed software!

License inquiries: sa...@pd...

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

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

> *) File README.1st:
>
> This text is to be deleted?
>
>  Note 3
>  ------
>  some files from Bruce Ravel's gnuplot-mode distribution have
>    not been included here, namely
>
>    o INSTALL              (covered by gnuplot install instructions)
>    o Win9x/INSTALL.Win9x
>    o Win9x/pgnuplot.c     (already in src/win)
>    o gnuplot.info         (can be created from docs/gnuplot.texi)
>    o gpelcard.ps          (can be created from lisp/gpelcard.tex)
>    o install-sh, mkinstalldirs  (provided by gnuplot)


I don't understand what this text tries to say nowadays. Therefore I propose
to delete it.



And what about this text:

First, tune term.h to choose which terminal drivers you wish to enable.
If you want to support gif output, you need to download, compile and
install the gd library : see term/gif.trm for details.


I don't think that's like that.

Also, README.1ST speaks only about GIFs. What about deleting this file and
reference from README to FAQ?

Note that the new gnuplot web page does neither speak about gifs.

---
PM

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

> *) Lars: contact Tom Williams (and whoever else you contacted last
>    time) for the formal "blessing" according to the gnuplot Copyright
>    statement.
 
 I thought I'd share this with all of you :)

----- Forwarded message -----
Lars,

It has been a long time!  Good to know you're still helping out with
Gnuplot.   It looks like the 4.0 features are great, I really like the
website Petr put together.  Look forward to hearing about the official
release!

-thaw-
Thomas Williams
GenSys Software www.gensys.com  
----- End forwarded message -----

Re: Ready for wrap-up everyone?

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

Lars Hecking wrote:

>>*) Lars: contact Tom Williams (and whoever else you contacted last
>>   time) for the formal "blessing" according to the gnuplot Copyright
>>   statement.
>>    
>>
> 
> I thought I'd share this with all of you :)
>
>----- Forwarded message -----
>Lars,
>
>It has been a long time!  Good to know you're still helping out with
>Gnuplot.   It looks like the 4.0 features are great, I really like the
>website Petr put together.
>

And Ethan, a portion thereof.

Dan