Re: [Plplot-devel] 3D plots enhancements commited to HEAD.

[Alan W. I. <ir...@be...>]

On Mon, 7 Oct 2002, [iso-8859-1] Jo=E3o Cardoso wrote:

> Finally I would like to merge two API entries, but have not done it
> until we discuss the matter.
> The API in question are plotfc3d() and plotsh3d(). As they are almost
> identical, only the way of coloring the surface is different, I think
> that is makes sense to merge both.
> plotfc3d() is so recent that nobody else other than us has ever seen it,
> so any change will make no harm to users. plotsh3d() is older, but as
> it was buggy I don't think that changing it will make any difference to
> users.
> So, what I propose is just to remove both API entries and create a new
> one, plsurf3d() that will have the capabilities of the old functions
> managed with the "opt" argument: if LIGHT_SHADE, than plotsh3d() will
> be handled, else if MAG_SHADE (or LIGHT_SHADE not defined) plotfc3d()
> will be handled.
> What do you think of this?

I agree with Joao's argument about not affecting our users that much so I
think he should go ahead.  However, it is going to be a while before I can
adjust the tcl, python, and java interfaces (and examples 8) to the new API
and also document the new API in doc/docbook/src so I hope Joao will do as
much of that work as possible.  I assume Joao will be handling the octave
interface and example 8 changes as well.

That leads me to a different but related topic.

Do we have a volunteer for supporting the fortran interface?  We have just
received the news that our fortran interface is getting special promotion b=
y
a fortran compiler company.  Fundamentally, I think that is great, but
unfortunatly our fortran interface is falling behind our other interfaces i=
n
terms of support of the common API, and the fortran examples need a lot of
work to bring them into consistency with the other examples (which is an
excellent test that the interface is actually working correctly and has at
least an important subset of the common API implemented.)

Now that I have reminded myself of the fortran interface problems, I will
put its maintenance in the minor, "would be nice" category in PROBLEMS.  I
classify it "minor" because although the whole project is a fair amount of
work it is actually the sum of a lot of little projects (one API or one
example at a time) that can be handled independently of each other by
multiple volunteers (hint, hint).

Alan

email: ir...@be...
phone: 250-727-2902=09FAX: 250-721-7715
snail-mail:
Dr. Alan W. Irwin
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3055,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 3P6
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