gnuplot-beta

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: Announcement, first draft

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

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

> >  GNUPLOT AND GIF IMAGES
> 
> Should be called "AND AMIGA"

Huh?  There are 3 other major section headings with ========= underlines
between "GIF IMAGES" and the Amiga stuff.

> Should be titled
>   GNUPLOT AND MAC OS X
> 
> >        Macintosh binaries will presumably be made available from the
> >        http://homepage.mac.com/gnuplot/ at some stage.

Not really. That's just one of many download addresses in the 
DISTRIBUTION sections.  I don't see that needing its own section.

Anyway, Per says this will go away anyway.

[CHANGES...] 
> Add:
> 
>   See it online at
>   http://www.gnuplot.info/docs/gnuplot.html#What_is_New_in_Version_4.0

I'm not convinced that is necessary, but I'll put it in. 

> 
> >  o Windows, X11, OS/2 and GGI interactive graphical terminals now support
> >    interaction with the plot window by mouse and hotkeys.
> 
> I would prefer to give credit to the historical sequence of mousing support;
> please change it:
> 
>   o OS/2, X11, GGI and Windows interactive graphical terminals now support
>     interaction with the plot window by mouse and hotkeys.

Why?  The users seeing this announcement will hardly be interested in
details of development history.  Or if they are, they can always look up
the much more detailed logs elswhere (NEWS, ChangeLog). I listed them
ordered (roughly) by market coverage, which should be at least as helpful.
 
> >  o Several new terminal drivers: EMF, PDF, SVG, GGI, epslatex.
> 
> and aqua

Agreed.

> >  o Even more documentation misprints have been fixed, thanks to
> >    Shigeharu TAKENO
> 
> Why capitalized name? 

Because Asians usually spell their names like that to avoid confusion 
about which of them is the family name.

> And why to mention any name here (instead of credits) -- dozen of people
> contributed.

But Mr. TAKENO worked on a particularly ungratifying part: spell-checking
documentation, and kept at it relentlessly for years.

> >  CREDITS
> >  =======
> >
> >  and to Johannes Zellner for the original mouse support.
> 
> Please change it to:
> 
>    and to Johannes Zellner for the help with X11 mouse and pm3d support.
> 
> 
> (the original mouse support was on OS/2 more than 1.5 years earlier).

OK --- I guess we can trust your memory more than mine.

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

Re: Announcement, first draft

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

On Apr 15, 2004, at 19:22, Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:

>
>> Should be titled
>>   GNUPLOT AND MAC OS X
>>
>>>        Macintosh binaries will presumably be made available from the
>>>        http://homepage.mac.com/gnuplot/ at some stage.
>
> Not really. That's just one of many download addresses in the
> DISTRIBUTION sections.  I don't see that needing its own section.
>
> Anyway, Per says this will go away anyway.

Just to make things clear:
I'm not affiliated with the above site, I just followed the link, which 
turned out to be dead.

I have no idea if the mac-gnuplot that used to be there is still under 
development.

/Per

Re: Announcement, first draft

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

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004, Petr Mikulik wrote:

[...]
> > And the FAQ in its beginning asks for contrib
[...]
> Ha, I haven't finished that text... I would propose the following text
> instead of the above 3 lines:
> 
> You are welcome to contribute to this document according to its section
> "Where do I send comments about this document?".

Changed.

-- 
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, Per Persson wrote:

> >        http://homepage.mac.com/gnuplot/ at some stage.
> 
> That site seems to be gone. For OS X binaries (when they come into 
> existence) of "mainline" gnuplot the best place, IMHO, is the same as 
> for other Unices.

OK, I'll change that to a "might become available", then, and add
that they will probably end up on the normal gnuplot ftp sites.

> >  o MacOS now as a driver for 'aquaterm' integrated in the mainline 
> > source.
> 
> Mac OS X now has a driver for 'aquaterm' integrated in the mainline 
> source [3].
> 
> [3] The aquaterm terminal driver requires third party software. 
> AquaTerm and libaquaterm can be downloaded from 
> http://aquaterm.sourceforge.net

Changed.
-- 
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, Daniel J Sebald wrote:

> Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:
> 
> > o Windows, X11, OS/2 and GGI interactive graphical terminals now support
> >   interaction with the plot window by mouse and hotkeys.
> >
> 
>   o X11 now supports unlimited plot windows and custom window titles.

Multiple plot windows isn't new, and the drop of a fixed limit
isn't exactly a major new feature.  Same goes for custom window titles,
IMHO.

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