Re: problem with "set x11 {size WW,HH} {position XX,YY}"

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

On Wednesday 11 February 2009 15:30:30 Petr Mikulik wrote:

> > In any event, I'd prefer that gnuplot allow an existing window be resized 
> > and/or repositioned. That would remove the need to "close" an existing 
> > window.
>
> The problem is not in the "close" option. The problem is that Octave 
> issues before each "plot" this command:
> 
> 	set terminal x11 close enhanced title "Figure 1" size 560,420
> 	position 300,148
> 
> i.e. Octave wants to reset size and position. However, I think that the 
> size+position options should be added only if user has explicitly 
> "set(gca,..., size/position, nnn)"; otherwise, these values should not be 
> passed to gnuplot and the positioning should be done by the window manager 
> and user's mouse movements. The default value of size/position in Octave 
> should be "auto" or "default" but not an explicit number.

I strongly agree.  An application program has no business changing my
window sizes or positions.  I was reluctant to add this capability to
gnuplot in the first place, and the current conversation is not
reassuring me.  At the least, I advocate for some simple way that the
end user can disable all such position/sizing commands.
I am tempted to add an XResource:
	gnuplot.leave-my-windows-alone:	yes   (default)

Anyhow, what if the end user wants to use some terminal type other
than x11?  Is there any particular reason that Octave wouldn't work
independent of the gnuplot terminal type? I don't see any particular
advantage to pushing the x11 terminal given the better performance of wxt,
or the newly proposed qt, or even aquaterm if the aqua team would get
off its butt and  release the version that's been sitting in cvs for
the last 2 years.

> By default, Octave should ask for
> 	set terminal x11 enhanced title "Figure 1"
> as it has been doing until now.

-- 
Ethan A Merritt