Re: gd.trm and multiple plots with png

[Jim K. <je...@kl...>]

Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:
> Harald Harders wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 18 Jan 2005, Ethan Merritt wrote:
> 
>>> The first problem I see is that you have to initialize
>>> the GIF file differently if you want to insert multiple
>>> images, so you have to know in advance that you are
>>> going to do so.   In other words, it won't work to
>>> have term->graphics() simply check whether the file is
>>> already open.  It would have to be a new option
>>>     set term gif {animated}
> 
> Just as clarification: would it fail to work if we always claimed to be 
> going to build an animated GIF, but just make it a single-frame 
> degenerate case of an "animation" in case the user closes output after 
> only one plot?
> 
>>> The gif term for multi-image is "animated", although
>>> this may not be the best keyword to use in gnuplot.
>>> "multiplot" would be better, but it already is being
>>> used for something else.
> 
>> What about "multipage"?
> 
> Full ACK.  Esp. since it exactly matches our existing "help glossary" 
> definition of what a 'page' is.

I have also wanted to create GIF animations.  How hard is it to
crack them back apart into individual images?  Note that the
current behavior for GIF and PNG is to lose all plots subsequent
to the first one.  Would it make sense to define an option to
write these subsequent plots to sequentially numbered files?
Then you choose "multipage" when the GIF should contain
an animation and perhaps "mutifile" when the GIFs should be
written into individual files.  Fail if they already exist?