Re: names of gnuplot Win32 binaries

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

On Tuesday 11 November 2008, Petr Mikulik wrote:
> 	Hi all,
> 
> we should solve an issue with naming Windows gnuplot binaries after the 
> recent addition of the console-capable target.

I have no opinion.  I leave it to those of you who are using Windows.

	Ethan


> Current situation:
> - wgnuplot.exe:
>   binary with a GUI for text input; piping into it does not work; piping
>   "inside" (e.g. "plot '<preprocess data.dat'") does not work
> - wgnuplot_pipes.exe:
>   as above, piping "inside" works (drawback: executable is tighed to a 
>   a console window)
> - pgnuplot.exe: helper program used for piping commands into wgnuplot.exe, 
>   i.e. redirect standard input
> - gnuplot.exe: console mode binary compiled by Cygwin with X11 terminal 
>   (requires running X-server - works OK with eXceed, cygwin's X11, etc.)
> 
> Recently, Michael Goffioul provided a patch to gnuplot sources what enables 
> to compile Windows gnuplot binary with console text input and Windows 
> terminal, see [ 1627936 ] Gnuplot Win32 in console mode 
> http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=302055&aid=1627936&group_id=2055
> 
> The primary intention was to achieve better functionality of programs piping 
> commands to gnuplot, like Octave, i.e. an efficient pgnuplot.exe 
> replacement.
> 
> Thus, what should be the name of this executable?
> 
> Choice 1.
> The executable will be called pgnuplot.exe -- it will replace the current 
> pgnuplot.exe. No change is required for programs using gnuplot as a plotting 
> engine.
> 
> Choice 2.
> The executable is called gnuplot.exe. Then, every platform will have an
> executable called gnuplot. However -- this will happen somewhen in future 
> (when gnuplot 4.4 is released).
> Drawbacks:
> 1. the name clashes with the name of the x11-capable executable 
>    (user/program cannot determine which one gets called)
> 2. no piping program is set-up to use gnuplot.exe under Windows, and in 
>    future there will be ambiguity whether to call pgnuplot.exe or 
>    gnuplot.exe.
> Thus, it would at least require to reimplement pgnuplot.c so that it 
> redirects all characters from stdin into gnuplot.exe instead of WinMessages 
> into wgnuplot.exe.
> 
> 
> Therefore, in my option, the best way to ensure compatibility is to call 
> the console-capable executable pgnuplot.exe. There will be no change needed 
> for other programs using gnuplot, power users could use pgnuplot.exe for 
> console mode with Windows terminal and others will not be confused.
> 
> I have proposed to rename the current binary of pgnuplot.c to 
> pgnuplot_small.exe if somebody still needs to use it.
> 
> 
> Opinions - votes?


-- 
Ethan A Merritt