Gnuplot version 4.2-rc2 (second release candidate)

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

	SECOND RELEASE CANDIDATE FOR GNUPLOT VERSION 4.2
	================================================

We are delighted to announce the availability of the second release
candidate for gnuplot version 4.2, in the form of a source file tarball.
4.2-rc2 is available initially as source only; pre-compiled binaries
for selected platforms will follow. Volunteers to produce such binaries
would be very welcome.

You may download 4.2-rc2 from the gnuplot development site on SourceForge.

  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2055


Installation
------------
Installation instructions are available in the source itself; the short
version for linux/unix-like systems is to unpack the tarball and then
build it:
		cd gnuplot-4.2.rc2 ; ./configure ; make
test it:
		make check
install it:
		make install


Short list of fixes since 4.2-rc1
---------------------------------
- various platform-specific fixes for configuration and compile problems
- clip arrows to boundary of 3D plots
- fixed gamma correction of image plots in postscript
- fix color-handling in fig terminal
- pass UTF-8 character sequences through to svg and png output
- fixed logic error in initializing rotation matrices for binary data
- do a better job of skipping gracefully over empty or missing data files
- do not segfault on entry if the x11 external driver is not found
- more consistent implementation of "-persist" option
- do not allow 'set view map' to affect placement of rectangles in 2D plots
- Fix off-by-one error in defining PNG line widths - thanks, Mike!
- Fix errors in size specification for pdf terminal
- Remove several spurious warning messages emitted at run-time

Remaining issues (may or may not be resolved before official 4.2 release)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Installation of the new wxt terminal under OSX is problematic
- Ongoing discussion of last-minute changes to the syntax of new options 
  + array specifications for 'with image'
  + additional modifiers for the 'set term <foo> size XX,YY' command
- Known bugs (no fix yet) in handling reversed axes in some plot types
- Behaviour of 'set size <foo>; set term png size <baz>' is different
  for the png/jpeg/gif terminal compared to all other terminal types.
  + Change it?  (breaks backwards compatibility with old scripts)
  + Leave it, but issue a warning whenever it would make a difference?
  + Add new build option, run option, or keyword?



Version 4.2
-----------
This version has been under development since the release of version
4.0 in April 2004. You have probably seen frequent mention of it here
as "the development version" or "version 4.1" or "the cvs version". 

4.2 contains a ton of new features and several new terminal drivers.
For a complete list, see the NEWS file that comes with the program.
Some major additions include

	* new 2D plot styles 'histogram' 'labels' 'image' 'rgbimage'
	* new 3D plot styles 'labels' 'vectors'
	* user control over color definitions and color choices
	* improved font handling and text formatting
	* text strings can be read and manipulated as normal data
	* new syntax to handle string variables and string functions
	* creation of animated gif sequences

Demo plots illustrating these and other features are online at

	http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_4.2/


We encourage everybody with a vested interest in gnuplot to get this new
version and give it a test ride.  In other words, we're calling for a
beta-test by the broader public.  That means you.

In order to assure that the quality of the upcoming full release is as
high as practical, it is important that as many of you as possible test
this release candidate in your own ways, and check that it doesn't break
spectacularly.  If there's a bug in it that makes this version unusable,
we'd like to hear about it _now_, rather than 3 hours after we release
an official version 4.2 to the general public.

Please report all bugs and installation problems to the bug tracker
on SourceForge:

	http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=2055&atid=102055

Thanks in advance, and have fun with it!

	- the gnuplot development team

-- 
Ethan A Merritt
sf...@us...