Re: empty data-files

[Hans-Bernhard B. <br...@ph...>]

On Sat, 8 Jan 2005, Jacques Bouchard wrote:

> But if you try to plot 2 data-files, one empty the other not, you get 
> the same answer, and that is not OK. There _is_ something to plot. 

But the plot command, as given, still is wrong.  An entire dataset is 
missing --- there'll consequently be all kinds of strange behaviour on the 
plot, which are pretty much guaranteed to make the resulting diagram at 
least hard to interpret, possibly unusable.


> That situation may arise if the data-files and the gnuplot script are
> generated automatically.

If so, then it's a grave bug in the generator that it didn't notice it
just created a datafile without any data in it.

> So I think that in plot2d.c:
> 
> int_error(c_token, "no valid data points found in specified file");
> 
> should be replaced with:
> 
> int_warn(c_token, "no valid data points found in specified file");

That would cause a new problem: gnuplot would now try to generate a plot, 
even if *none* of the files in the plot contain any data.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (br...@ph...)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.