Re: Suggestion to improve usability of plot command

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

Hans-Bernhard Br=F6ker wrote:

>>gnuplot> plot 'file1' with points 'red squares'
>>gnuplot> plot 'file2' with points 'blue crosses'
>>gnuplot> plot 'file1' with points 'orange octagons'

Call this the Lucky Charms design principle.  (I probably used that joke =
already... for which many of you likely don't know that Lucky Charms is a=
 brand of cereal.)

I'm actually kind of partial to this syntax.  Could maybe even change it =
to read like

gnuplot> plot 'file1' with red square points

The one problem is that to describe some of these symbols can get lengthy=
, e.g., "filled square" vs. "empty square".  However, we could limit the =
number of symbol names to be six or eight, i.e., just "square" (could get=
 the filled square using the numbers).

>=20
> [...]
>=20
>>The symbols are:
>>        's' : square
>>        'o' : circle
>>        '^' : triangle up

or this.  Not as easy to remember, but condensed syntax.


> is the same: they completely ignore one central design principle of=20
> gnuplot: script compatibility across terminal drivers.  Your proposal
> fails to address the question what gnuplot should do with a plot script=
=20
> that requests some point symbol the current driver simply can't generat=
e.

The driver would map to another symbol and issue a warning.  (And we coul=
d write an algorithm so that it isn't mapped to an already used symbol nu=
mber.)

I keep a file on my computer with such numbers:

Symbol translation for Octave to "pslatex" terminal:

1 - plus
2 - x
3 - asterisk
4 - open square
5 - solid square
6 - open circle
7 - solid circle
8 - open triangle
9 - solid triangle

I don't know if the problem is so much the use of numbers for me.  The pr=
oblem is the fact that the numbers don't produce the same symbols across =
drivers.  Why couldn't those be mapped to be similar symbols?  It is very=
 frustrating to create a plot on the screen, then save it as PostScript t=
o find the symbols are different.  In that sense, I'd say gnuplot isn't s=
cript compatible.

Dan