Re: [Gnuplot-info] minor ticks on logaritmic axis

[Bo J. <li...@f7...>]

Thanks for the input.

I guess no optimal solution exists, it is hard to ensure the "reader" of 
the
graph knows what the minor ticks means unless the "normal"  8 minor 
ticks is used.

I will try to figure out if any convention exists in the mathematical 
literature, and
return if I find any.

Best
     Bo

On 2014-06-07 00:13, BBands wrote:
> In coding our own stock-market analysis graphics program we stumbled
> across this mine field. We chose to give the user three options: log
> tics, linear tics and decades. 'Log tics' produces equidistnat tics on
> the chosen axis, 'linear grid' produces tics every n points apart and
> 'decades' is the gnuplot and perhaps conventional default. Explaining
> this to users is hell. We just say, "Try all three and use the one you
> like best."
>
> Thinking about this makes my head hurt,
>
>      John
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Ethan Merritt <eam...@gm...> wrote:
>> The issue of minor tics on a log scale axis has been problematic since the
>> origin of gnuplot, lost in the dim mists of time.  The oldest bug in the
>> tracker complains about this.  But over the last 10 years I have never seen
>> a coherent proposal about how the program could better handle a "set mxtics"
>> command in log-scale mode, let alone a patch that would implement it.
>>
>> IMHO the best thing is to treat "set/unset mxtics" in log scale mode as an
>> on/off operation only.  "on" means you get autogenerated minor tics, "off"
>> means you don't get any.
>>
>> As John points out, you can generally set mxtics to 10.  That fixes some odd
>> corner cases when the total range on x is less than one decade, but can
>> introduce strangeness in other corner cases.