Re: new rfunctions

[Mojca M. <moj...@gm...>]

On Jan 22, 2008 11:20 PM, Ethan Merritt wrote:
> On Tuesday 22 January 2008 05:54, Daniel Heiserer wrote:
> > dear developers,
> >
> > I am nost sure if this is the developers list, but I didn't find another link to it.
>
> The is the developer list, yes.
> Welcome.
>
> > Problem:
> > I would like to add some functions to the CVS version of gnuplot.
> > These functions include:
> > min()
> > max()
> > std()
> > mean()
> > etc.
> >
> > so for example it would be possible to run:
> >
> > plot  "summary_01.ascii"   using 1:(0.90*min($2,$3)) with lines lt 1 lc rgb "#0000ff" lw 2
>
> Could you explain why you need to have these as built-in functions?
> What is wrong with just defining them yourself:
>
>   min(A,B) = A < B ? A : B
>
> You can put that definition in your customization file ~/.gnuplot
> if you always like to have it.

I agree that min, max, mean and others might be handy to have. I
always "hack them" with ($1+$2+$3+$4)/4 or the way you have just
shown, but these are really basic functions that are often used and
easy to implement.

Instead of asking "why one would want to add them", I would rather ask
"why not".

But this is just my humble opinion, nothing else.

Mojca