Re: White space balance has changed

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

On 06/08/2016 01:39 PM, Ethan A Merritt wrote:
> On Wednesday, 08 June, 2016 11:07:28 Daniel J Sebald wrote:
>> I've been stepping through the demos, and my general observation from
>> what I remember is that there is now much less white space around plots.
>>    The behavior is the same in two different terminals (x11 and qt).
>> I've gone back to about -D2016-05-25 in the repository to see if this is
>> a current inadvertent change.  It's the same as current development version.
>
> The default margins for "set view map; splot ..." were changed to be
> more like those for an equivalent 2D plot.  So that category of plot
> is expected to have less white space around it than in old gnuplot
> versions.

OK, so it looks like primarily the issue is that a lot of demos need 
some fine tuning...or remove fine tuning that was geared toward older 
layout.


>> Has anyone else noticed this?  Perhaps it was intentional, and in some
>> sense I don't mind it because it makes the plots use more of the
>> available window screen.  I mean, typically when I create a plot for a
>> publication I will reduce the whitespace to minimal because word
>> processors can always add it back in.  That can be done changing the
>> margins or post-gnuplot with some cropping tool specific to, say, eps or
>> something.
>>
>> However, as far as the demos, the plots don't feel as though they have a
>> good white space balance for several plots.  Here are some notable ones:
>
>
>> fillcrvs.dem (7) world.dat plotted with filledcurves
>> multiplt.dem (1)
>
> I have no explanation for any changes seen in these

Ah, there's a margin command in that example that was probably for 
tweaking the older layout behavior.  This change looks much better:

Index: gnuplot/demo/fillcrvs.dem
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/gnuplot/gnuplot/demo/fillcrvs.dem,v
retrieving revision 1.6
diff -u -r1.6 fillcrvs.dem
--- gnuplot/demo/fillcrvs.dem	19 May 2007 20:35:53 -0000	1.6
+++ gnuplot/demo/fillcrvs.dem	8 Jun 2016 20:00:20 -0000
@@ -70,7 +70,6 @@
  set object  1 rect from graph 0, 0 to graph 1, 1 behind fc  rgb 
"#afffff" fillstyle solid 1.00 border -1
  set xrange [ -180.000 : 180.000 ]
  set yrange [ -70.0000 : 80.0000 ]
-set lmargin  1
  plot 'world.dat' with filledcurve notitle fs solid 1.0 lc rgb 
'dark-goldenrod'
  pause -1 'Press Return to continue'


>> [The above two illustrate how plot are is slightly skewed to the left]
>> heatmaps.dem (1) (2) (3) (4)
>
> These are set view map + splot, so changes are expected

OK, map view, yeah there's quite a few of those.  The historic map size 
was kind of small.  This is the change that was noted in this bug report:

https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/bugs/1802/

I will follow up on that one on Sourceforge.


>> piecewise.dem (1) Piecewise function sampling
>> matrix_index.dem (1) Data file contains labeled ascii matrices
>> [annotation off screen]
>
> These demos did not exist prior to version 5, so I'm not sure what
> you are comparing to.  The output looks normal when tested here.

I'm seeing the y-axis text right up against the screen edge, and on the 
right side is three characters of white space.  But, I see that margins 
are specified in this example.  Note, however, that I'm seeing an error 
message for the "set multiplot" line:

gnuplot> load 'matrix_index.dem'
          "matrix_index.dem", line 29: warning: must give margins and 
spacing, continue with spacing of 0.05
Hit return to continue

If I just remove the "margins etc" option, the warning disappears and 
the spacing looks good, very balanced.  Should we just remove the 
margins?  Or keep them in as a way of testing the option?  Here's what 
looks good for me:

Index: gnuplot/demo/matrix_index.dem
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/gnuplot/gnuplot/demo/matrix_index.dem,v
retrieving revision 1.2
diff -u -r1.2 matrix_index.dem
--- gnuplot/demo/matrix_index.dem	13 Jan 2015 18:17:29 -0000	1.2
+++ gnuplot/demo/matrix_index.dem	8 Jun 2016 20:00:20 -0000
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
  set xrange [] noextend
  set yrange [] noextend

-set multiplot layout 2,2 margins char 3,3,2,4 title "{/:Bold Data file 
contains labeled ascii matrices}
+set multiplot layout 2,2 margins char 5,3,2,4 spacing char 6,3 title 
"{/:Bold Data file contains labeled ascii matrices}

  set title "Y range should be the same"
  plot '$MATRICES' nonuniform matrix i "set3" w image title "index 'set3'"


Dan