gnuplot-beta

Compilation instructions for Windows and Mac OS X

[Philipp K. J. <ja...@ie...>]

For my book project, I would like to summarize 
installation and compilation instructions for 
gnuplot.

I am struggling to get good descriptions together
for Win and OS X, not least because I don't have
access to either platform.

While the description for Windows seems rather
straightforward, I have not been able to find
installation instructions for Mac OS X. 

Can somebody point me to a good resource?

Best,

		Ph.

Re: Compilation instructions for Windows and Mac OS X

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

On Tuesday 17 June 2008 12:51:00 pm Philipp K. Janert wrote:
> 
> For my book project, I would like to summarize 
> installation and compilation instructions for 
> gnuplot.
> 
> While the description for Windows seems rather
> straightforward, I have not been able to find
> installation instructions for Mac OS X. 

Step 1) remove Apple's version of libreadline
Step 2) install the "real" libreadline
Step 3) same as any other unix machine:
	./configure
	make install

If you want x11 support (which I highly recommend)
then add 

Step 0) install Apple X11 developer's kit

> Can somebody point me to a good resource?

http://xanana.ucsc.edu/~wgscott/xtal/wiki/


So far the wxt terminal doesn't work under OSX.
Timothée is working on a revised terminal that is compatible
with OSX, but that isn't likely to be available in an official release
until version 4.4 or 5.0.

Re: Compilation instructions for Windows and Mac OS X

[Mojca M. <moj...@gm...>]

On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:51 PM, Philipp K. Janert wrote:
>
> For my book project, I would like to summarize
> installation and compilation instructions for
> gnuplot.
>
> I am struggling to get good descriptions together
> for Win and OS X, not least because I don't have
> access to either platform.
>
> While the description for Windows seems rather
> straightforward, I have not been able to find
> installation instructions for Mac OS X.

It depends on whether you want gnuplot to run on the first place, or
if you want to create a proper package out of it.

To make it run at all by building from sources, the instructions are
exactly the same as on linux (probably ./prepare, ./configure, make,
make install). The only additional thing that needs to be installed in
aquaterm (http://sourceforge.net/projects/aquaterm/), but I forgot how
I installed it.

An alternative straightforward way is to install gnuplot using fink
(http://www.finkproject.org/). If one has fink installed, it's
possible to say either
    fink install gnuplot
or
    fink install gnuplot-nox
which will install gnuplot without support for xterm, but there is
aquaterm, which is in a way better (more native), but doesn't support
all the functionality - mouse is "dead" (you can resize, but that will
only scale, and you cannot zoom into the plot or retreive values from
points).

Still, I only use aquaterm as a terminal. For using xterm, one needs
to install X11 first, at least on Tiger (on the new Leopard, X11 is
already installed).

To make a package for distributing it (something approximately
equivalent to rpm on linux), one needs a more elaborate instructions,
but I doubt that people would really want that.

Mojca

Re: Compilation instructions for Windows and Mac OS X

[Philipp K. J. <ja...@ie...>]

Thanks to both of you. I am looking for installation
and compilation from source, for instance, if somebody
wants to build the development version.

Let me try and summarize:

1)
You need either AquaTerm or X11 installed.
(Gnuplot will compile without them, but the only
interactive terminal you will be able to use will be
the dumb terminal. File terminals will work.)

1a)
X11 requires the Apple developers kit as a
separate install, unless you are running Leopard
or newer, on which it is already preinstalled.

1b)
AquaTerm can be downloaded as either src
or precompiled binary from sourceforge.

2)
Once either one of these is installed and is detected
during the configure-step, the build process is the 
same as for all other Unix platforms.

3)
Finally, recent versions of OS X ship with a broken
version of the Gnu libreadline. These problems will
not be detected during the configure step, but will
lead to compile-time errors later. There are two
workarounds:
- use Gnuplot's own (minimalistic) libreadline:
	/configure --with-readline=builtin 
- or replace Apple's version of readline with the 
	version before building.


Is this correct?


By the way, it would be cool if precompiled
binaries for OS X would be available on the
gnuplot site.


On Tuesday 17 June 2008 15:05, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:51 PM, Philipp K. Janert wrote:
> > For my book project, I would like to summarize
> > installation and compilation instructions for
> > gnuplot.
> >
> > I am struggling to get good descriptions together
> > for Win and OS X, not least because I don't have
> > access to either platform.
> >
> > While the description for Windows seems rather
> > straightforward, I have not been able to find
> > installation instructions for Mac OS X.
>
> It depends on whether you want gnuplot to run on the first place, or
> if you want to create a proper package out of it.
>
> To make it run at all by building from sources, the instructions are
> exactly the same as on linux (probably ./prepare, ./configure, make,
> make install). The only additional thing that needs to be installed in
> aquaterm (http://sourceforge.net/projects/aquaterm/), but I forgot how
> I installed it.
>
> An alternative straightforward way is to install gnuplot using fink
> (http://www.finkproject.org/). If one has fink installed, it's
> possible to say either
>     fink install gnuplot
> or
>     fink install gnuplot-nox
> which will install gnuplot without support for xterm, but there is
> aquaterm, which is in a way better (more native), but doesn't support
> all the functionality - mouse is "dead" (you can resize, but that will
> only scale, and you cannot zoom into the plot or retreive values from
> points).
>
> Still, I only use aquaterm as a terminal. For using xterm, one needs
> to install X11 first, at least on Tiger (on the new Leopard, X11 is
> already installed).
>
> To make a package for distributing it (something approximately
> equivalent to rpm on linux), one needs a more elaborate instructions,
> but I doubt that people would really want that.
>
> Mojca

Re: Compilation instructions for Windows and Mac OS X

[Mojca M. <moj...@gm...>]

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 6:56 PM, Philipp K. Janert wrote:
>
> By the way, it would be cool if precompiled
> binaries for OS X would be available on the
> gnuplot site.

I agree.

They were for some time, but the version available there did not work
on my computer (dynamically linked libraries, incompatible on my
computer with the ones available on the site).

Mojca

Re: Compilation instructions for Windows and Mac OS X

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

On Wednesday 18 June 2008 09:56:05 am Philipp K. Janert wrote:
> 
> Thanks to both of you. I am looking for installation
> and compilation from source, for instance, if somebody
> wants to build the development version.
> 
> Let me try and summarize:
> 
> 1)
> You need either AquaTerm or X11 installed.
> (Gnuplot will compile without them, but the only
> interactive terminal you will be able to use will be
> the dumb terminal. File terminals will work.)
> 
> 1a)
> X11 requires the Apple developers kit as a
> separate install, unless you are running Leopard
> or newer, on which it is already preinstalled.
> 
> 1b)
> AquaTerm can be downloaded as either src
> or precompiled binary from sourceforge.
> 
> 2)
> Once either one of these is installed and is detected
> during the configure-step, the build process is the 
> same as for all other Unix platforms.
> 
> 3)
> Finally, recent versions of OS X ship with a broken
> version of the Gnu libreadline. These problems will
> not be detected during the configure step, but will
> lead to compile-time errors later. There are two
> workarounds:
> - use Gnuplot's own (minimalistic) libreadline:
> 	/configure --with-readline=builtin 
> - or replace Apple's version of readline with the 
> 	version before building.
> 
> 
> Is this correct?

The aquaterm version on http://aquaterm.darwinports.com/
is newer than the one on SourceForge.  I think (not sure) that you
need the newer one if you are using Leopard.

Development of aquaterm seems to have stagnated.
Gnuplot actually supports aquaterm features (e.g. transparency)
that never made it into the aquaterm version on SourceForge.
I have not checked the Darwin port.

Mac fans seem to like aqua, but in terms of gnuplot performance
and features,  the x11 terminal works much better than aquaterm.
If aquaterm development were to resume, that might change.
 
> By the way, it would be cool if precompiled
> binaries for OS X would be available on the
> gnuplot site.

I echo Mojca's concern:  I haven't had much luck with 3rd party
pre-compiled OSX apps.  They tend to require incompatible versions
of various font and graphics libraries.  It's probably possible to tweak
system configurations to work around this, but at least from my
perspective it's easier to build from source and link against whatever
version of the libraries you already have installed.  Nevertheless,
there are pre-compiled gnuplot binaries for both Darwin and Fink if
you want to go that route.  Maybe also in the Octave package?

	Ethan


 
> 
> On Tuesday 17 June 2008 15:05, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:51 PM, Philipp K. Janert wrote:
> > > For my book project, I would like to summarize
> > > installation and compilation instructions for
> > > gnuplot.
> > >
> > > I am struggling to get good descriptions together
> > > for Win and OS X, not least because I don't have
> > > access to either platform.
> > >
> > > While the description for Windows seems rather
> > > straightforward, I have not been able to find
> > > installation instructions for Mac OS X.
> >
> > It depends on whether you want gnuplot to run on the first place, or
> > if you want to create a proper package out of it.
> >
> > To make it run at all by building from sources, the instructions are
> > exactly the same as on linux (probably ./prepare, ./configure, make,
> > make install). The only additional thing that needs to be installed in
> > aquaterm (http://sourceforge.net/projects/aquaterm/), but I forgot how
> > I installed it.
> >
> > An alternative straightforward way is to install gnuplot using fink
> > (http://www.finkproject.org/). If one has fink installed, it's
> > possible to say either
> >     fink install gnuplot
> > or
> >     fink install gnuplot-nox
> > which will install gnuplot without support for xterm, but there is
> > aquaterm, which is in a way better (more native), but doesn't support
> > all the functionality - mouse is "dead" (you can resize, but that will
> > only scale, and you cannot zoom into the plot or retreive values from
> > points).
> >
> > Still, I only use aquaterm as a terminal. For using xterm, one needs
> > to install X11 first, at least on Tiger (on the new Leopard, X11 is
> > already installed).
> >
> > To make a package for distributing it (something approximately
> > equivalent to rpm on linux), one needs a more elaborate instructions,
> > but I doubt that people would really want that.
> >
> > Mojca
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace.
> It's the best place to buy or sell services for
> just about anything Open Source.
> http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php
> _______________________________________________
> gnuplot-beta mailing list
> gnu...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gnuplot-beta
> 

Re: Compilation instructions for Windows and Mac OS X

[Philipp K. J. <ja...@ie...>]

Thanks. That's very helpful.

Last question (because I am such a Mac OS X idiot):
do I need any non-standard (ie not typically pre-installed)
packages on a Mac to be able to compile anything, such
as the Apple developers kit, or does a regular Mac come
out of the box with the required compilers, linkers, libs?

Best,

		Ph.




On Wednesday 18 June 2008 10:36, you wrote:
> On Wednesday 18 June 2008 09:56:05 am Philipp K. Janert wrote:
> > Thanks to both of you. I am looking for installation
> > and compilation from source, for instance, if somebody
> > wants to build the development version.
> >
> > Let me try and summarize:
> >
> > 1)
> > You need either AquaTerm or X11 installed.
> > (Gnuplot will compile without them, but the only
> > interactive terminal you will be able to use will be
> > the dumb terminal. File terminals will work.)
> >
> > 1a)
> > X11 requires the Apple developers kit as a
> > separate install, unless you are running Leopard
> > or newer, on which it is already preinstalled.
> >
> > 1b)
> > AquaTerm can be downloaded as either src
> > or precompiled binary from sourceforge.
> >
> > 2)
> > Once either one of these is installed and is detected
> > during the configure-step, the build process is the
> > same as for all other Unix platforms.
> >
> > 3)
> > Finally, recent versions of OS X ship with a broken
> > version of the Gnu libreadline. These problems will
> > not be detected during the configure step, but will
> > lead to compile-time errors later. There are two
> > workarounds:
> > - use Gnuplot's own (minimalistic) libreadline:
> > 	/configure --with-readline=builtin
> > - or replace Apple's version of readline with the
> > 	version before building.
> >
> >
> > Is this correct?
>
> The aquaterm version on http://aquaterm.darwinports.com/
> is newer than the one on SourceForge.  I think (not sure) that you
> need the newer one if you are using Leopard.
>
> Development of aquaterm seems to have stagnated.
> Gnuplot actually supports aquaterm features (e.g. transparency)
> that never made it into the aquaterm version on SourceForge.
> I have not checked the Darwin port.
>
> Mac fans seem to like aqua, but in terms of gnuplot performance
> and features,  the x11 terminal works much better than aquaterm.
> If aquaterm development were to resume, that might change.
>
> > By the way, it would be cool if precompiled
> > binaries for OS X would be available on the
> > gnuplot site.
>
> I echo Mojca's concern:  I haven't had much luck with 3rd party
> pre-compiled OSX apps.  They tend to require incompatible versions
> of various font and graphics libraries.  It's probably possible to tweak
> system configurations to work around this, but at least from my
> perspective it's easier to build from source and link against whatever
> version of the libraries you already have installed.  Nevertheless,
> there are pre-compiled gnuplot binaries for both Darwin and Fink if
> you want to go that route.  Maybe also in the Octave package?
>
> 	Ethan
>
> > On Tuesday 17 June 2008 15:05, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:51 PM, Philipp K. Janert wrote:
> > > > For my book project, I would like to summarize
> > > > installation and compilation instructions for
> > > > gnuplot.
> > > >
> > > > I am struggling to get good descriptions together
> > > > for Win and OS X, not least because I don't have
> > > > access to either platform.
> > > >
> > > > While the description for Windows seems rather
> > > > straightforward, I have not been able to find
> > > > installation instructions for Mac OS X.
> > >
> > > It depends on whether you want gnuplot to run on the first place, or
> > > if you want to create a proper package out of it.
> > >
> > > To make it run at all by building from sources, the instructions are
> > > exactly the same as on linux (probably ./prepare, ./configure, make,
> > > make install). The only additional thing that needs to be installed in
> > > aquaterm (http://sourceforge.net/projects/aquaterm/), but I forgot how
> > > I installed it.
> > >
> > > An alternative straightforward way is to install gnuplot using fink
> > > (http://www.finkproject.org/). If one has fink installed, it's
> > > possible to say either
> > >     fink install gnuplot
> > > or
> > >     fink install gnuplot-nox
> > > which will install gnuplot without support for xterm, but there is
> > > aquaterm, which is in a way better (more native), but doesn't support
> > > all the functionality - mouse is "dead" (you can resize, but that will
> > > only scale, and you cannot zoom into the plot or retreive values from
> > > points).
> > >
> > > Still, I only use aquaterm as a terminal. For using xterm, one needs
> > > to install X11 first, at least on Tiger (on the new Leopard, X11 is
> > > already installed).
> > >
> > > To make a package for distributing it (something approximately
> > > equivalent to rpm on linux), one needs a more elaborate instructions,
> > > but I doubt that people would really want that.
> > >
> > > Mojca
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace.
> > It's the best place to buy or sell services for
> > just about anything Open Source.
> > http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php
> > _______________________________________________
> > gnuplot-beta mailing list
> > gnu...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gnuplot-beta

Re: Compilation instructions for Windows and Mac OS X

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

On Wednesday 18 June 2008 10:36:16 am Ethan Merritt wrote:

> The aquaterm version on http://aquaterm.darwinports.com/
> is newer than the one on SourceForge.  I think (not sure) that you
> need the newer one if you are using Leopard.
>
> Development of aquaterm seems to have stagnated.
> Gnuplot actually supports aquaterm features (e.g. transparency)
> that never made it into the aquaterm version on SourceForge.
> I have not checked the Darwin port.
> 

I must correct that. I see that support for transparency was added to
the core aquaterm source about a year ago, and was tagged for release 1.1
But there is no pre-built binary package for version 1.1 on the SourceForge site.
The newest is 1.0.1 from two years ago. 

If I can figure out how to test for the aquaterm version number in ./configure,
I will try conditionally enabling the transparency in aquaterm.trm
and try to rebuild aquaterm itself from the 1.1 source.
Of course, I'll have to borrow another Mac for this...

	Ethan