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Release announcement - gnuplot version 4.6.3
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From: Ethan A M. <sf...@us...> - 2013-04-18 23:48:52
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Release 4.6.3 is now available for download from SourceForge.
Yes, only a month has gone by since release 4.6.2.
There are two reasons for such a short interval between releases:
1) Preparation/testing of Windows binaries for 4.6.2 turned up
several problems. These were fixed by backporting changes from
the development version. Rather than allowing divergence in
the source and binary release packages for "4.6.2" it seemed
better to bump the patchlevel and label both as 4.6.3
2) Two regressions related to color handling crept into 4.6.2
One regression caused the "monochrome" terminal option to be
ignored in some conditions.
The other regression caused the text and graphics color in
postscript- and cairo- based LaTeX terminals to get out of sync.
Both regressions have been fixed in 4.6.3
happy gnuplotting,
Ethan (gnuplot development team)
Full Release Notes follow:
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
GNUPLOT VERSION 4.6.3
===================================
This is an incremental release of gnuplot version 4.6 containing updated
support for Windows installation and fixes for several regressions in
color handling that affected the version 4.6.2 postscript, pdf, cairo, and
associated latex terminals.
A short list of changes since the previous patchlevel (version 4.6.2)
is given below and in the NEWS file. Detailed information is in ChangeLog.
New features, changes and fixes since gnuplot version 4.6.2
===========================================================
* NEW space raises console for console mode gnuplot on Windows
* CHANGE -persist mode does not open text window of wgnuplot
* FIX -persist mode broken on Windows
* FIX -persist mode results in zombie process if using wxt terminal on Windows
* FIX suppression of color in linetypes after "set term ... mono"
* FIX synchronization of graphics and text color in latex terminals
NOTES TO PACKAGERS AND TESTERS
===============================
Configuration options for interactive use
-----------------------------------------
The 4.6 source code supports three primary cross-platform output modes
in addition to several platform-specific modes.
1) Cairo/pango/wxWidgets
These terminals were introduced in version 4.4 and are now the most
stable and full-featured option. This set of terminals includes
- pngcairo, pdfcairo, epscairo, and cairolatex for output to a file
- wxt for interactive display
This is the default configuration, but requires prior installation of
libcairo, libpango, libcairo, libwxgtk, and related support libraries
To disable these terminals:
./configure --disable-wxt --without-cairo
2) Qt
The new qt terminal supports interactive display with menu-driven
output to png, svg or pdf.
Requires libqt version >= 4.5
./configure --enable-qt
3) X11 (the "classic" interactive interface)
This used to be the preferred interactive interface, but the newer
wxt and qt terminals offer nicer output and a wider range of features.
Options for output to files
---------------------------
Of course the terminals (output modes) present in previous gnuplot versions
are also still available. These include, among many more obscure options:
- png/jpeg/gif output via libgd
- PostScript
- Many flavors of TeX/LaTeX output, including TikZ and ConTeXt (new)
- Bitmapped output to support many older devices (e.g. HP deskjet, epson,
seiko printers, pbm bitmapped graphics files) is available if needed
but is no longer configured in by default. Note that the bitmap code
copyright is more restrictive than the rest of the gnuplot code.
./configure --with-bitmap-terminals
Options for generating interactive plots for web display
--------------------------------------------------------
- Mouseable output for display on the web can be created using either
the canvas terminal (HTML5 2D canvas element) or the svg terminal.
Both allow zooming, toggling plot elements on/off, and user-scriptable
hot keys.
Online demo plots
-----------------
Demo plots illustrating new and old features are online at
http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/
OTHER NOTES
===============================
Installation
------------
You can download a source tarball for gnuplot version 4.6.3 from the
gnuplot development site on SourceForge.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2055
Installation instructions are available in the source itself; the short
version for linux/unix-like systems is to unpack the tarball and then
build it:
cd gnuplot-4.6.3 ; ./configure ; make
test it:
make check
install it:
make install
Pay careful attention to the output of the ./configure script.
It may indicate that some output drivers have been omitted because the
necessary support libraries were not found. In general you need to have
previously installed the "*-devel-*" versions of these libraries.
Known issues
------------
- Mac OSX ships with a terminal input library that appears to be GNU
libreadline, but isn't really. The program tries to cope with this, but
you may get better results by configuring gnuplot to use either its own
built-in readline routines or the real GNU libreadline.
- The gnuplot build system is not very good at figuring out where to find
or install LaTeX-related files. This can affect use of the new lua/tikz
and ConTeXt terminals.
- You can configure support for both wxt and qt into the same gnuplot
executable, but only one of these two output modes can be used in any
given gnuplot session.
Support
-------
Please report all bugs and installation problems to the bug tracker
on SourceForge:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=2055&atid=102055
There is also an gnuplot discussion forum on usenet group
comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot
Development
-----------
Gnuplot development is quite active. The development branch on SourceForge
contains preliminary implementations of many new features. The current
development branch is labeled version 4.7, but will probably be released as
version 5. Feedback and contributions of code are very welcome.
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