Re: PostScript prologue [was: 16-bit versions of gnuplot doomed?]

[Ethan A M. <merritt@u.washington.edu>]

On Saturday 28 February 2004 08:12 am, Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Feb 2004, Ethan Merritt wrote:
> > 2) It allows local customization of the prologue without having to
> >    recompile the main program.
>
> That would complicate bug report handling, though --- it's one more thing
> exposed to be broken by users who don't quite know what they're doing.

People can always break things if they try hard enough.

The normal unix way would be to install the default prologue file read-only
in some system directory, but have the program check first for a 
possibly modified copy in ~/.gnuplot/prologue.ps  or some such.
The first line of defence in the FAQ and in screening bug reports then
becomes:  "If you have a locally customized version of prologue.ps
in your home directory, please remove it and see if the problem persists."

-- 
Ethan A Merritt
Department of Biochemistry & Biomolecular Structure Center
University of Washington, Seattle