2d vector fields

[Pawel C. S. S. <pa...@gm...>]

Hi

I am interested in add a feature do gnuplot: 2d vector fields from
R^2->R^2 functions

example:
gnuplot>plot (sin(x)*y^2,cos(y)x^2) with 2dVectorField

I know that it is possible to create a datafile with the information
about the vector field, but it can be nice to make zoom and don't
worry about the data density in the datafile.

I would like to add another feature: I would like to use octave (for
example) to calculate the value of some function.
My proposition is not to run octave many times, but to create a
children process and send/recibe values by PIPES, example:

gnuplot>open calculator 'myCulculatorProgram'
  now gnuplot forks and create a children process
"system('myCulculatorProgram')" and is ready to use that program to
calculate something (open 2 pipes gnuplot<-->Mycalculator)
gnuplot>plot calculator('myExternalFunctionName',x,y)
  To calculate the value of
   calculator('myExternalFunctionName',x,y)
 gnuplot send data by the pipe to the children process and white for
the results in another pipe.

This feature can by really great, octave is what I need, but with this
mechanism it is possible even to send SOAP request to some special
mega-calculation-server or what ever.

I have ready some code for this feature, but i would like to know:
--can be this useful?
-- it is possible to make something equivalent with gnuplot in some other way
And if this is a new feature, then:
-- what format to use for this features (represent R2->R2 functions,
and the external calculator)
-- how to submit code to CVS

Thanks