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

[Ben A. <bpa...@ma...>]

On Feb 12, 2009, at 9:01 PM, Ethan Merritt wrote:

> On Thursday 12 February 2009 17:31:14 Ben Abbott wrote:
>>
>> Ethan Merrit wrote:
>>> Right.  No re-positioning or re-sizing of an existing window.
>>
>>
>> Personally, I have no position on what is and is not proper with
>> respect to the positioning of windows. However, I think it is
>> important to clarify a point.
>>
>> Octave's intention is to allow the user to move/resize the figures  
>> via
>> the mouse, the command line, or a script. This intent is primarily
>> driven by the goal of compatibility with Matlab.
>
> Shrug.  It's your project, not mine.  Do as you like.
> But IMHO it is a mistake to define your own goal as imitation of the
> behaviour of another project, particular a closed-source one.
> This is why (IMHO of course) OpenOffice is such a disaster.
> The people who care about how well you imitate the other program
> *are already using the other program*!  Why would they switch to  
> yours?
> Do it better.  Don't imitate their mistakes, correct them.
> Add features.  Let them scramble to imitate you, rather than vice  
> versa :-)
>
> By all means, strive to accept Matlab scripts as input.  And
> obviously one would hope that the plots themselves would come out
> the same. But none of that imposes any requirement for duplicating
> window decorations, or placement, or mouse interactions for that  
> matter.
> Is there no functionality you'd like to add that Matlab lacks?
>
>> That said, the current state of Octave's development sources when
>> running gnuplot's development sources with the x11 terminal  is not
>> what we'd like it to be. Octave presently ignores any repositioning/
>> resizing via the mouse and repositions and resizes the figure to the
>> location specified by the figure's position property. This only
>> happens for the x11 terminal when running development versions of
>> Octave and Gnuplot.
>
> Please clarify.  Do you mean that everything works as intended in
> the released versions of Octave + gnuplot, but this has become broken
> in the development versions?

hmmm, not really. There is nothing broken. We're just incrementally  
moving toward a compatible solution.  In addition, the undesired  
feature that counters window placement by the mouse is easily disabled.

You made some good points. You convinced me that my eagerness to move/ 
resize the window after it is already open needs further  
consideration. I think it best to disable that feature in Octave's  
sources, and to include the ability to update the figure property  
position in a reliable manner before reconsidering it.

At this point, I'd like to respectfully ask if gnuplot is able to  
supply the support needed to allow octave to (1) specify the initial  
window position and size for x11 as well as other terminals (done for  
some already), and (2) determine the position and size after mouse  
movements (I think the next item of repositioning and resizing gnuplot  
windows should be tabled for now).

Regarding x11 and (2), we would desire that the vertical extension  
present when displaying mouse coordinates go away.  You had mentioned  
that might be possible. Can/should this be done?

Regarding wxt, Qt (others?), do you know if it is possible to  
determine their canvas sizes as well?

Ben