6.2.0-NEWS

NEWS - 2015-11-03 Release 6.2.0

Overview:

This is the current stable release of PHPlot. This is the first release that will work with the upcoming PHP-7. This release also adds two new plot types.

The PHPlot Reference Manual has been updated to match this release.

Cautions, Important Notes, and Compatibility Issues:

PHP-7 deprecated use of older-style class constructor method names, where the constructor name matches the class name. The PHPlot class constructor name in this release has been fixed to work with PHP-7. This release also works with PHP-5.4, 5.5, and 5.6. However, there is a compatibility issue with extended classes. This applies even if you are using PHP-5.

If you define a class which extends the PHPlot class, you must use this syntax to call the PHPlot constructor from your class constructor:

 parent::__construct(...);  // Call parent class constructor

This syntax also works in previous releases of PHPlot. However, the following syntax also worked in older releases, and will no longer work:

 $this->PHPlot(...);  // Do Not Use This to call parent class constructor

or:

 parent::PHPlot(...); // Do Not Use This Either

You must use the correct syntax parent::__construct() even if using PHP-5.

If you are using PHP-7 with PHPlot, here are a few other items to be aware of.
(Some of these affected the PHPlot test suite.)

• PHPlot uses is_numeric() to check for missing points in the data array. Starting with PHP-7, hexadecimal strings are no longer considered numeric. This means if your data array contains the string "0x10", for example, PHPlot will consider that to be the number 16 when using PHP-5.x, but will treat it as a missing point with PHP-7. (Unquoted hexadecimal values are still numbers.)

• PHP-7 no longer allows multiple function parameters with the same name. A typical case which fails in PHP-7 is:

  function myfunction($s, $unused, $unused); // Fails in PHP-7

This broke some PHPlot Test Suite scripts that implemented PHPlot callbacks with unused parameters.

• New objects cannot be assigned by reference. Very old versions of the PHPlot Reference Manual had this syntax (and there may still be some old versions out there):

  $plot =& new PHPlot(600, 400);  // Do not use &
  

• Division by zero no longer results in E_WARNING, but you end up with one of the special float values +INF, -INF, or NAN instead.

Bugs Fixed in 6.2.0:

[bugs:#170] "replace eval() ...":

This was a request to remove use of eval() from SetDashedStyle(), because eval() makes people nervous about security, and is not supported by some Virtual Machines. Removed eval() by using a string template instead of a code string for the dashed line pattern. There are no changes in usage or behavior.

[bugs:#172] "Fixes for PHP7":

This release now works with PHP-7 (currently pre-release). The constructor name was changed; there were no problems with the rest of the code. (Although several scripts in the PHPlot Test Suite also had to be fixed.) Any class that extends PHPlot must now use the correct syntax to call the parent constructor: parent::__construct(...). If they used the old syntax $this->PHPlot(...) they will not work (even with PHP-5.x).

New features in 6.2.0:

[feature-requests:#55] "Method documentation in PHPDoc format":

PHPlot now uses "phpdoc"-style comments in the code, which apparently is supported by some editors/IDEs. Note that the PHPlot Reference Manual does currently make use of these comments.

[feature-requests:#56] "Hidden Y values when zero":

The request was for a way to hide Y label values when zero, but the implementation is much more general. When using 'printf' label formatting type, you can now specify 1, 2, or 3 separate format strings. These are applied in the same way spreadsheets support cell format strings: which format is used depends on the sign of the value.

[feature-requests:#57] "squarefilled plot type":

Two new plot types are added: 'squaredarea' and 'stackedsquaredarea'. These are like area and stackedarea, but the edges are stepped like 'squared' plots.

[feature-requests:#58] "Data borders for area plot types":

After data borders support was added to the two new plot types 'squaredarea' and 'stackedsquaredarea', this was extended to the existing, similar plot types 'area' and 'stackedarea'. Data borders are off by default for all 4 plot types.