Re: [Plplot-devel] Next release

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

On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, [iso-8859-1] Jo=E3o Cardoso wrote:

> My question is if we should not abandon the bug fix release, and take
> the April opportunity to make a new real release instead.

I agree 100 per cent with Rafael's response on this question.  What is in
CVS at release time defines whether the release is bug-fix or not.

> [...]I have a new API
> entry to submit. It's an utility function to grid data, removing the
> limitation that our 3D data plots have of using regularly sampled data.

How does this compare with the pltr1 and pltr2 interpolation that already
exists for the plcont and plshade(s) part of our 3D API? I don't mind
adding an additional interpolation scheme possibility so long as it
can be used in the same way pltr1 and pltr2 are used now.

A related issue is this may be a good opportunity to generalize our argumen=
t
lists for all our 3D functions. For now plcont and plshades allow PLcGrid o=
r
PLcGrid2 style arguments to pass the x,y information and interpolate with
pltr1, pltr2, or any other interpolation function specified by the user.
Those arguments have enough generality so that the x,y surface can be
irregular in shape (something I need for my research for all the 3D API).
Thus, I would like to see the plcont and plshade(s) scheme for passing the
x,y information adopted for plsurf3d and the rest of our 3D API.

This additional facility should, of course, be implemented as added API
rather than changed API.  There is certainly a place for simple 3D API call=
s
where x and y appear as separate arrays rather than as part of a PLcGrid or
PLcGrid2 structure.  But I (and presumably many other users) need the other
more general alternative as well.  To be blunt about this, gnuplot has
allowed irregular shaped x,y domains for all their 3D API since 1996, and I
think it is long past time that PLplot caught up.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin
email: ir...@be...
phone: 250-727-2902

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and
Analysis (www.cccma.bc.ec.gc.ca) and the PLplot scientific plotting softwar=
e
package (plplot.org).

__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________