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

[Chris K <gnu...@li...>]

Ethan A Merritt wrote:
> On Saturday 01 April 2006 01:05 pm, Chris K wrote:
>> Second: Where is the best documentation for the enhanced text format a=
nd protocol?
>=20
> .../docs/psdoc/ps_guide.ps=09
> 	gives the UI
> .../term/README		=09
> 	gives the required driver entry points to support it
> .../term/dumb.trm	=09
> 	contains a minimal implementation to be used as a model
>=20
>> 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).
>=20
> Please give up on this file descriptor obsession.
>

I am removing the "fd #" option to the terminal.  I will be using "set ou=
t"

Also, "obsession" is a hostile term to use.  Despite this being April 1st=
, I
will try and keep the snark escalation under control.

> If you need a communication channel aside from stdin/stdout,
> create a named pipe and use "set output" to pass its name.

Why on earth might it matter whether I use mkfifo or a pipe like that?

It's not like I'm doing something crazy like serving the results via http=
s.

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

True.  I am not concerned about speed.  Since I did not even know what th=
e
commands were or what the protocol should look like, I started with what =
was
simplest.  It's not like I'm doing something crazy like encoding the resu=
lts in
XML.  That's svg.trm's job.

>=20
>> I am ultimately using a Cairo backend which has commands like are
>> nearly isomorphic to what gnuplot sends to the terminal.
>=20
> You should have a look at Timoth=E9e Lecomte's wxWidgets driver,
> which also ends up driving Pango+Cairo.
>=20

I only found that recently.  I still have not gotten their code.  I will =
soon.

--=20
Chris