gnuplot-4.2 released

    OFFICIAL RELEASE OF GNUPLOT VERSION 4.2
    =======================================

We are delighted to announce the release of gnuplot version 4.2.
It has been almost 3 years since release of the previous version 4.0, but
we have put this time to good use. Version 4.2 contains a ton of new
features, support for several new output devices, and improved performance
when plotting large data sets. For a complete list of new features, see
the NEWS file that comes with the program.

Major additions include

\* Text strings can be read and manipulated as normal data
\* New interactive terminal based on wxWidgets, pango and cairo
\* New 2D plot styles 'histogram' 'labels' 'image' 'rgbimage'
\* New 3D plot styles 'labels' 'vectors' 'image' 'rgbimage'
\* User control over color definitions and color use in plots
\* Improved font handling and text formatting
\* New syntax to handle string variables and string functions
\* Creation of animated gif sequences
\* Support for UTF-8 and other multi-byte font encodings
\* Japanese language documentation and internal help

Demo plots illustrating these and other features are online at

http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo\_4.2/

You can download a source tarball for gnuplot version 4.2 from the
gnuplot development site on SourceForge. Pre-built binaries for
selected platforms will appear presently.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group\_id=2055

Installation
------------
Installation instructions are available in the source itself; the short
version for linux/unix-like systems is to unpack the tarball and then
build it:
cd gnuplot-4.2.0 ; ./configure ; make
test it:
make check
install it:
make install

Known issues
------------
- Installation of the new wxt terminal under OSX and Solaris is problematic
- Plot styles image and rgbimage are marked EXPERIMENTAL; their implementation
is incomplete and may change in future versions of gnuplot
- MSWindows support for mouse/keyboard events is incomplete

Support
-------
Please report all bugs and installation problems to the bug tracker
on SourceForge:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group\_id=2055&atid=102055

There is also an active gnuplot discussion forum on usenet group

comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot

Development
-----------
Gnuplot development is quite active. The development branch (4.3) on
SourceForge contains preliminary implementations of many new features;
feedback and additional contributions of code are very welcome.