default terminal for version 5.2 on Windows

[Bastian M. <bma...@we...>]

In version 5.0 on Windows, the wxt terminal is still the default terminal - in contrast to other platforms where it is "qt". Before version 4.2 the default used to be the "windows" terminal. As is, the new default on Windows would be "qt", too.  But on Windows "qt" is still somewhat buggy (e.g. "replot-on-resize" just does not work) or is missing features compared to "wxt" or "windows" (printing, screendump, emf, docked windows). Also, the persist behaviour of "qt" is different (terminal in separate process), so this at least would have to be documented. Start-up time for the first plot is considerably longer for "qt". On the other hand "wxt" has been extended to support printing and emf export in version 5.2 and drawing is somewhat faster, too. The "windows" terminal is now on par concerning the quality of the plots, and also supports printing, export of emf and "docked graphs". The new (experimental) Direct2D backend of the terminal is currently the fastest plotting option on Windows (except for pattern fills). The "docking" of graph windows to the wgnuplot text window is useful e.g. when in "tablet-mode" (only maximised applications).
My suggestion for 5.2 would hence be to either stick with "wxt" as the default terminal on Windows, or to switch to "windows" instead of "qt".
The installer offers the user to change the GNUTERM environment variable to "windows", "wxt", or "qt" already.

  Bastian