Re: Replot in epslatex terminal

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

On Friday 24 June 2005 08:44 am, Hans-Bernhard Br=F6ker wrote:
> Ethan Merritt wrote:
>=20
> > As a result, you can have as many showpages in an EPSF file as you
> > like, because they are all redefined to null.  I don't see any specific
> > mention of %%Page in connection with EPSF files.
>=20
> It wouldn't be --- %%Page is not part of the PostScript language proper,=
=20
> but rather of the DSC extensions. =20
> That's why it's formatted like a PostScript comment.

Thanks for that bit of jargon, since it lets me find the relevant
sections of the PostScript spec.

The example EPSF files in the PostScript Language Reference Manual
do use %%Page operators.  It is explicitly allowed, as part of the
Document Structure Convention, for EPSF and EPSI files.

On Friday 24 June 2005 12:29 am, Ga=EBl Varoquaux wrote:
>=20
>     Well I think that for the epslatex terminal it is a bug : what's
> printed by the replot command never gets shown.

It may well be undesirable for the epslatex terminal. I defer to those
who actual use this terminal type. =20

> And for the eps terminal=20
> it is a very counter-intuitive feature that will trick many users. I
> think this beahve should at least be controled by a terminal option and
> turned off by default.

But for plain *.eps output generated by 'set term post eps', so far as I
understand Adobe's reference documentation, it is allowed.

Existing viewers (ghostscript, gv) handle the presence of multiple %%Page
elements by displaying one screen per %%Page in an eps file.=20
My current PostScript printer (Xerox Phaser 8400) handles them by printing
them all, but without a page-feed in between.  So the individual=20
%%BoundingBox lines allow multiple plots per sheet of paper, just as in
a full *.ps file.

"Counter-intuitive" obviously has different meanings for each person.
To me it is intuitive that a *.eps file is the same as a *.ps file
except that it allows being embedded in another document. I realize there
is also provision for having an embedded preview image bitmap in the
*.eps case, but I rarely encounter these.  I imagine this was an
accommodation to the historically limited support for displaying the actual
PostScript contents under MS Windows.=20

Anyhow, I would argue against changing the current (and long-standing)
default behavior of 'set term post eps'.  For epslatex, I have no
opinion one way or the other.

=2D-=20
Ethan A Merritt       merritt@u.washington.edu
Biomolecular Structure Center
Mailstop 357742
University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195