Re: [PATCH] x11 terminal respects the requested aspect ratio

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

On Saturday, 29 September 2012, Dima Kogan wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> > On Sat, 29 Sep 2012 11:44:09 -0700
> > "sfeam (Ethan Merritt)" <eam...@gm...> wrote:
> >
> > On Saturday, 29 September 2012, Dima Kogan wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:37:06 -0700

> > 1) The output of the ascii version is hugely redundant. Most of the
> > successive V commands are identical because the vectors are shorter
> > than the resolution of the plot coordinates.  If this were a common
> > thing we would do well to add a filtering step in x11.trm so that
> > a new "V" command is only sent if it differs from the previous command.
> > For example running the ascii output through "uniq" reduces the file
> > size by a factor of 7, with a speed increase of 50x(!!) running 
> > through gnuplot_x11.
> 
> Sounds great. Should I do this, or do you want to?

I will look into it.

> > 3) I worry that the binary code might not work on all supported
> > platforms.  Since it's just a few lines of code, I suggest that rather
> > than replacing the existing 'V' command we add a parallel command
> > 'B' for the bainry version.  In x11.trm the choice between using 'V'
> > or 'B' could be a compile-time option.   We can default to the binary
> > version, but anyone having problems with it could revert to the old
> > ascii version with a configuration flag.
> 
> My preference would be to switch entirely so that the amount of code being
> maintained doesn't grow, but you're the boss. :)

I am inclined to let both sit in CVS while we test.  If no problems turn
up with the binary version we can remove the old ascii code before release.

> Keeping track of all the patches, proposals, the following are currently being
> considered:
> 
> 1. Patch for variable-width, space-separated fields to allow 5-digit values 
  Merged yesterday.

> 2. Missing legend label with tall windows. Caused by the 'if (x < 10000 && y <
>    10000)' test in x11.trm. Removing this test entirely seems to work for the
>    most part. ... should be removed entirely.
  Merged yesterday.

> 3. Dead code such as the 'else if (*buffer == X11_GR_FILLED_POLYGON)' block.
  Merged yesterday.

> 4. strtolstrtol() instead of scanf() sounds like an easy win. Can you think of
>    any reason to NOT make that change?
  Only that you are in the process of replacing it altogether with a 
  binary version :-)
  But if it's a win for 'V' it's almost certainly a win everywhere else as well.

> 5. Adding default window size to the inboard x11 driver so that the 'terminal
>    xlib' produces plots that have decent defaults when sent to the outboard
>    driver manually. I'll do this.
  OK.  It's not just xlib, however.  I think (not 100% sure) that the same 
  problem arises whenever (ipc_back_fd == IPC_BACK_UNUSABLE), e.g. x11 output
  from a script run non-interactively.

> 6. Removing duplicate messages (such as duplicate consecutive V commands) sounds
>    great. We should do it
  OK. Low priority because it's relatively rare for normal plots.

> 7. General thoughts about speeding up the inboard -> outboard link by making
>    some things binary. I like binary. Making this switch will probably make some
>    things break at first, but it'll likely be worth it. If we're touching that
>    at all, more radical methods may be better. For instance, instead of a V
>    command for each point, we could have a V command that predeclares a long
>    stream of points. 
  We do. That's what the X11_POLYLINE code is for.

	Ethan