Re: clunky fn plots

[sfeam (E. Merritt) <eam...@gm...>]

On Tuesday, 11 October 2011, pl...@pi... wrote:
> On 10/11/11 18:42, sfeam (Ethan Merritt) wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 11 October 2011, pl...@pi... wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I was under the impression that plotting functions and data in the same
> >> plot command meant the interval for the fn plot would follow the
> >> datafile.
> >
> > The sample interval for function plots is controlled only by the
> > "set sample" and "set isosample" commands.   There is no connection to
> > the number or location of points in any of the data plots.
> >
> > 	Ethan
> >
> 
> Many thanks Ethan .
> 
> in fact my college had just discovered that setting via wgnuplot's menus 
> . It would have taken me a lot longer on linux digging blindly thought 
> the help.

Then the most useful thing might be for you to suggest where in the help
system to add this information.  Where did you look first?  Would that be
a logical place to add mention of "set sample"?

> Is there a particular reason this is such a course setting by default. ? 
> I've often been frustrated by quality when working with functions and I 
> would imagine most users would be too, or more likely confused by odd 
> effects that happen with things like sine plots with many cycles displayed.
> 
> Since most PCs will be operating with at least 600x800 window, wouldn't 
> sample 1000 be a better choice?

No default value will be ideal for all purposes.  
Setting a large number would have disadvantages for point plots, 
for 3D surface rendering, for the file size of vector output 
(eps svg emf ...) and for the computational time if the function
is complicated (for example spinning the plot in 3D becomes slow).

	Ethan