Re: [Gnuplot-bugs] gnuplot 4.0.0, PDFlib and term/pdf.tfm

[Harald K. <ko...@sc...>]

On Jul 20, Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:

> > 	#    ifdef _SETJMP_H
> > ==>	      __png.h__ already includes setjmp.h;
> > ==>	      __dont__ include it again.;
> 
> I consider this fragment a case of raging insanity on libpng's side.  
> It's none of their business to tell other people's source which ANSI/ISO
> standard library headers it's allowed to include and which not.

totally agreed -- I've just asked them to change that code....
but nevertheless, I think gnuplot sources should be prepared
to allow compilation with that ugly, but (yet) existing png header file.

> The solution, if any, has to be achieved elsewhere.  Gnuplot's source can
> at best implement a workaround, and I don't see why we should modify
> perfectly nice code to accomodate such utter silliness in other people's
> works.

IMHO the one and main reason to change gnuplot's sources "for now" (until 
libpng-1.2.6 will be released -- cross fingers:) is to help other users 
to compile/use gnuplot...

> > - same color sequuence for line types
> 
> Supposed to already be the case, to a large extent.  And then there's the
> issue of X11 colours being overridable by the user --- with no effect
> to PS and PDF, or any other terminals for that matter.

here I'd be very pragmatic -- I won't care about application default settings
for X11, if only the out-of-the-box defaults would match.

> > - same symbol shape sequuence
> 
> That's going to be hard or impossible.  PS has a lot more point symbols,
> some of which (the opaque ones) may note even be portable to X11.

symbol shape has lower priority compared to color, page size etc. 
but still I think it would be "nice to have" similar shapes at least
for a set of the first ~8-16 symbols...

> > - same line hashes 
> > - same page/plot size
> 
> What could 'page size' possibly mean to X11?

nothing of course;-)  
page size is just a matter for PS vs. PDF (for the set of drivers I care about:)

> I personally don't see much to gain by making the colour sequences exactly
> equal --- that'd be a pointless exercise anyway unless we were to integrate
> a calibrated color managment system.

it's not about making them _exactly_ the same, but _similar_:

an example:  pretty often I plot lots of different data sets
of some measurements, adding curve fittings, error information etc.
so I need a lot of different colors.

for a presentation with a beamer (and for printing on color printers),
the by far biggest problem is _yellow_ -- it's almost invisible in all cases.

on X11, all colors are dark/bright enough to be visible,
only colors #7 and #8 (orange and coral) are a bit similar
and not really easy to distinuish.

but once I produce a PS file (converted to PDF so far), 
color #6 gets yellow and I can't use it anymore.

now, if I want to produce PDF, I have to choose #7 as
"blind color" for white background, which can't be used
anymore and  I have to rework all my plot scripts again...

and if I switch back from PDF presentation to "online" work
with gnuplot, the color legend again changes which is pitty
(pretty often colors have a fixed meaning and displaying 
the same data with different colors is very disturbing).

and if I finally want to produce some PNG images or whatever
for a web presentation, I'd guess that I get yet another
color set (well, actually I've seen in the source code
that PNG seems to use web colors too -- but I haven't tried
and tested it so far;-) 


next problem shows up, if I try to refer to parts of a diagram
in texts by colors of the idems, talking about "that red line"
and "blue error bars" which can be color 9/11 for X11,
10/12 for PS and whatever for PDF...





anyway, thanks for your  quick answer and comments!


Harald Koenig
-- 
"I hope to die                                      ___       _____
before I *have* to use Microsoft Word.",           0--,|    /OOOOOOO\
Donald E. Knuth, 02-Oct-2001 in Tuebingen.        <_/  /  /OOOOOOOOOOO\
                                                    \  \/OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO\
                                                      \ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO|//
Harald Koenig                                          \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
science+computing ag                                    //  /     \\  \
ko...@sc...                            ^^^^^       ^^^^^