TikZ-Terminal/Howto write terminals

[Johannes M. <joh...@gm...>]

Hi ...

I read in the archive of this list, that a terminal for TikZ is being
worked on. Coincidently at about the same time I also hacked a very simple
terminal for TikZ.

It was mt first time to hack around in gnuplot code. I have to admit, that
I am a little disappointed by the terminal interface as I find it a bit too
lowlevel. But maybe I am just missing something.

A big advantage of TiKZ that I want to use is the node system. This allows
you to put text next to certain points (below, above, ...) without having
to specify the exact coordinates. Especially you don't have to know about
the size of the text, font metrics and the like, as TikZ and TeX will to
that for you.

For example a tick mark could be drawn by the following line:

\draw (1,0) node[below]{1} -- ++(0,0.1);

The problem now is, that the terminal is not told about all this stuff. It
is only told to draw lines, texts, points, polygons and stuff.

What I like to have is access to some struct, which has the information on
the plot, e.g. what the labels are, how the ticks are to be plotted, the
titles of the plots, etc.

Then I can output the TiKZ code to draw the plot skeleton, i.e. box, axes,
labels, ticks, tick marks, legends and so on. Then just the plots
themselfes should be plotted the way it is implemented now by telling the
terminal to draw simple lines.

Is there any possibility to archive this?

Thank you.


joh