Re: Plans for gnuplot version 5

[Ethan A M. <sf...@us...>]

On Wednesday, 05 March, 2014 23:37:34 Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> 
> I understand that black-and-while plotters, ascii terminals,
> black-and-green monitors etc. need(ed) different handling of
> linestyles and might have only been capable of providing a limited
> number of colors.
> 
> Nowadays I don't see any reason why each terminal should have its own
> set of default colours, dash patterns and point types.

Already in version 4.6 you can set a default set of colours and
point types that is used by all capable terminals.
I highly recommend it, particularly because the built-in default
of red/green/blue is so awful for any number of reasons.

But yes, I suppose we could provide one or more built-in 
color sets.  There are already 3 sets in the distribution package.
We could add a command:
   set colors {default|monochrome|something else}

That doesn't break compatibility however. It's just a new command.

We don't yet have control over dash patterns, but assuming that
gets added then the existing "set linetype" command will be able
to use it.   

So I think this goal has already been achieved.


	Ethan