gnuplot-beta

cbfix

[Dr. J. Z. <joh...@ze...>]

Hello,

about everybody of my collegues who uses gnuplot / pm3d the first time
asks me how to make the pm3d colorbox to display only the colors from
the plot -- which is easily be done by "set autoscale cbfix". I heared
this question about 10 or 15 times the last years. Having autoscaling
switched on for all axes by default (so the default for all axes is
the same) might be esthetically and conceptionally "correct" but it is
counterintuitive. I would guess that it's far above 90% of cases where
the colorbox range should be "cbfix". My feeling is that the default
autoscaling for the colorbox is rarely wanted and used. Therefore I'd
suggest to turn the default to "set autoscale cbfix" (even though this
breaks backwards compatibility.

-- 
Dr. Johannes Zellner <joh...@ze...>

Re: cbfix

[Hans-Bernhard B. <HBB...@t-...>]

> Having autoscaling
> switched on for all axes by default (so the default for all axes is
> the same) might be esthetically and conceptionally "correct" but it is
> counterintuitive.

A note of clarification: it's not actually autoscaling that's getting in 
your way there.  It's auto-extension.  Which only happens if both 
auto-scaling and auto-ticking are in operation.

> I would guess that it's far above 90% of cases where
> the colorbox range should be "cbfix".  My feeling is that the default
> autoscaling for the colorbox is rarely wanted and used. Therefore I'd
> suggest to turn the default to "set autoscale cbfix" (even though this
> breaks backwards compatibility.

I'm against breaking backward compatibility for an issue that can 
trivially be fixed by putting a line in your ~/.gnuplotrc (or other 
platform's equivalent)

Re: cbfix

[Micha W. <mw...@gm...>]

Hans-Bernhard Bröker schrieb:

>> Having autoscaling switched on for all axes by default (so the
>> default for all axes is the same) might be esthetically and
>> conceptionally "correct" but it is counterintuitive.
> 
> A note of clarification: it's not actually autoscaling that's getting
> in your way there.  It's auto-extension.  Which only happens if both 
> auto-scaling and auto-ticking are in operation.
> 
>> I would guess that it's far above 90% of cases where the colorbox
>> range should be "cbfix".  My feeling is that the default 
>> autoscaling for the colorbox is rarely wanted and used. Therefore
>> I'd suggest to turn the default to "set autoscale cbfix" (even
>> though this breaks backwards compatibility.
> 
> I'm against breaking backward compatibility for an issue that can 
> trivially be fixed by putting a line in your ~/.gnuplotrc (or other 
> platform's equivalent)

I am for breaking backward compatibility if it helps usability, since it
can be easily fixed by putting the old setting into ~/.gnuplotrc.

Re: cbfix

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

> the plot -- which is easily be done by "set autoscale cbfix". I heared
> this question about 10 or 15 times the last years. Having autoscaling
>
> >> Having autoscaling switched on for all axes by default (so the
> >> default for all axes is the same) might be esthetically and
> >> conceptionally "correct" but it is counterintuitive.

It's a good idea and I also propose to switch "set autoscale cbfix" by 
default. Colours are used for visualization, so it's really wrong to have 
them rounded down&up. Looking to other software, e.g. Matlab, the range is 
"fixed". Actually I really don't like to use always the "fix" setting...

Why it has not been done until know? Nobody came with this idea!

It won't hurt older scripts, I guess that everybody is using "set autoscale 
fix" for images and similar, or sets cbrange explicitly.

Johannes, can you prepare a patch for both 4.2 and cvs and test it?

> I am for breaking backward compatibility if it helps usability, since it
> can be easily fixed by putting the old setting into ~/.gnuplotrc.

Exactly.

---
PM

Re: cbfix

[Dr. J. Z. <joh...@ze...>]

Hi,

attached is the trivial patch.

-- 
Dr. Johannes Zellner <joh...@ze...>

2008/3/4, Petr Mikulik <mi...@ph...>:
> > the plot -- which is easily be done by "set autoscale cbfix". I heared
>  > this question about 10 or 15 times the last years. Having autoscaling
>  >
>
> > >> Having autoscaling switched on for all axes by default (so the
>  > >> default for all axes is the same) might be esthetically and
>  > >> conceptionally "correct" but it is counterintuitive.
>
>
> It's a good idea and I also propose to switch "set autoscale cbfix" by
>  default. Colours are used for visualization, so it's really wrong to have
>  them rounded down&up. Looking to other software, e.g. Matlab, the range is
>  "fixed". Actually I really don't like to use always the "fix" setting...
>
>  Why it has not been done until know? Nobody came with this idea!
>
>  It won't hurt older scripts, I guess that everybody is using "set autoscale
>  fix" for images and similar, or sets cbrange explicitly.
>
>  Johannes, can you prepare a patch for both 4.2 and cvs and test it?
>
>
>  > I am for breaking backward compatibility if it helps usability, since it
>  > can be easily fixed by putting the old setting into ~/.gnuplotrc.
>
>
> Exactly.
>
>  ---
>
> PM
>