[Gnuplot-info] explanation to a short script

[Jon <dev...@gm...>]

Dear Thomas,

Nunzio Losacco wrote a short script to get each number divided by the
smallest number in a specific column, as
min=10**10
grab(x)=x<min?min=x:min=min
plot 'disy.100' u 1:($3/grab($3))

I don't quite understand the logic behind although I checked that it works
fine. If I were to do this, I would write something like

set term dumb
min=10**10
plot 'disy.100' u ($3<min?min=$3:min=min,$1):3

set term x11
plot 'disy.100' u 1:($3/min)

and you easily see the idea I wrote it this way. I think this reflects a big
problem for me to understand deeply how gnuplot deals with datafile and how
it plots, which is obviously different from the standard programming
languages. Thanks for your in-depth explanation or references,

Sincerely,
Jon