Re: Arrow head filling patch, and "port.trm"

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

On Saturday 01 April 2006 01:05 pm, Chris K wrote:
>=20
> Second: Where is the best documentation for the enhanced text format and =
protocol?

=2E../docs/psdoc/ps_guide.ps=09
	gives the UI
=2E../term/README		=09
	gives the required driver entry points to support it
=2E../term/dumb.trm	=09
	contains a minimal implementation to be used as a model

> In the end, gnuplot gains to ability to drive a rendering program via the=
 output
> file, which I will redirect to a pipe (/dev/fd/5).

Please give up on this file descriptor obsession.
If you need a communication channel aside from stdin/stdout,=20
create a named pipe and use "set output" to pass its name.

> Then gnuplot has the ability=20
> to drive any program that parses the protocol without recompiling gnuplot=
=2E  None
> of the terminal drivers that I have read (besides debug) approached it th=
is way.

Sure. I agree it's a useful thing to have, if only for debugging.
But for any extensive set of data, the extra bandwidth required by the=20
ascii intermediate will kill you. That's why a binary protocol mode
was added to the x11 communications channel.

> I am ultimately using a Cairo backend which has commands like are
> nearly isomorphic to what gnuplot sends to the terminal.

You should have a look at Timoth=E9e Lecomte's wxWidgets driver,
which also ends up driving Pango+Cairo.

=2D-=20
Ethan A Merritt
Biomolecular Structure Center
University of Washington, Seattle 98195-7742