From: Alan W. I. <ir...@be...> - 2002-03-13 16:47:10
|
I have just heard a rumor from one of my Debian contacts that gnuplot may adopt a non-free license. If that happens, we may be getting some gnuplot refugees starting to use PLplot, and it might be worth our while to encourage this by implementing a programme to translate gnuplot scripts into PLplot (python?) scripts. Do we have the (gnuplot) expertise here to make such an "import" programme? My own memory of gnuplot is pretty vague since I last used that package 5 or 6 years ago. Alan email: ir...@be... phone: 250-727-2902 FAX: 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 __________________________ Linux-powered astrophysics __________________________ |
From: Geoffrey F. <fu...@ga...> - 2002-03-13 17:38:34
|
Alan W. Irwin writes: > I have just heard a rumor from one of my Debian contacts that gnuplot may > adopt a non-free license. If that happens, we may be getting some gnuplot > refugees starting to use PLplot, and it might be worth our while to encourage > this by implementing a programme to translate gnuplot scripts into PLplot > (python?) scripts. > > Do we have the (gnuplot) expertise here to make such an "import" programme? > My own memory of gnuplot is pretty vague since I last used that package 5 or > 6 years ago. Are they going to drop the Gnu from their name? I'm afraid I don't know gnuplot scripting well enough to be much help here. |
From: Alan W. I. <ir...@be...> - 2002-03-13 18:59:58
|
On Wed, 13 Mar 2002, Geoffrey Furnish wrote: > Are they going to drop the Gnu from their name? My understanding is the "gnu" part of gnuplot name is a happy (for them) historical accident, and gnuplot has no connection with the FSF's GNU packages. So, IF gnuplot changes to a non-free license, I expect they will leave the name the same. But regardless of what they do on the licensing or name, it is still interesting to think about implementing an import filter from a gnuplot script to a plplot script to ease the transition for those gnuplot users who want to give plplot a try. So I would like to hear from anybody here who will admit (;-) to recent gnuplot experience whether they think such an import filter is even possible. Alan |
From: Maurice L. <mj...@ga...> - 2002-03-15 06:47:14
|
Alan W. Irwin writes: > But regardless of what they do on the licensing or name, it is still > interesting to think about implementing an import filter from a gnuplot > script to a plplot script to ease the transition for those gnuplot users who > want to give plplot a try. So I would like to hear from anybody here who > will admit (;-) to recent gnuplot experience whether they think such an > import filter is even possible. I inherited some simple gnuplot scripts while at dejanews. Although I did some enhancement/tweaking, I never got around to redoing them in plplot because the results were good enough for the job at hand. I just got around to downloading the most recent gnuplot -- 3.7.1, which was released over 2 years ago! Apparently the project has stagnated quite a bit. They also lost their domain gnuplot.org, so are now at gnuplot.info. The distribution does come with a set of demos: ged$ ls demo 1.dat bivariat.dem gnuplot.rot multimsh.dem reread.bor spline.dem using.dat 2.dat borders.dem hemisphr.dat multiplt.dem scatter.dem start.par using.dem 3.dat contours.dem hexa.fnc param.dem scatter2.dat stat.inc vector.dem airfoil.dem controls.dem hidden.dem polar.dem silver.dat steps.dat whale.dat all.dem density.fnc klein.dat poldat.dem simple.dem steps.dem world.cor animate.dem discrete.dem lcdemo.dat prob.dem singulr.dem surface1.dem world.dat battery.dat electron.dem line.fnc prob2.dem sound.par surface2.dem world.dem big_peak.dat fit.dem mgr.dem random.dem sound2.par timedat.dat binary.dem glass.dat moli3.dat reflect.fnc soundvel.dat timedat.dem So at least any attempt at replacement would have something to shoot for. I'm wondering if this is something that's amenable to a flex/yacc treatment. If so a flex/yacc expert could probably whip something out in a few days, and we'd just need to add the underlying support routines for doing the actual plots. That way we could support gnuplot "natively" through a new set of bindings. Eventually adding plplot-specific enhancements, of course. Any CS majors out there remember their flex/yacc? :) I'd be tempted to look into it myself if I weren't so terribly busy -- I spent a day studying the two a while back and was fascinated. -- Maurice LeBrun mj...@ga... |
From: Maurice L. <mj...@ga...> - 2002-03-15 07:50:38
|
Maurice LeBrun writes: > I'm wondering if this is something that's amenable to a flex/yacc treatment. > If so a flex/yacc expert could probably whip something out in a few days, and > we'd just need to add the underlying support routines for doing the actual > plots. That way we could support gnuplot "natively" through a new set of > bindings. Eventually adding plplot-specific enhancements, of course. BTW I think of this as a "binding" because it does (barely) fit into the paradigm of a mapping from some arbitrary API onto plplot core intrinsics. Each binding we have is a thoroughly independent beast, although we try to make the API's similar. In this case, we don't. :) And as a binding, it would eventually come with a set of example programs that reproduce the current example set. Using the "PLplot command superset" as necessary.. Sounds like a pretty cool project. -- Maurice LeBrun mj...@ga... |
From: Joao C. <jc...@fe...> - 2002-03-14 19:29:51
|
On Wednesday 13 March 2002 4:46 pm, Alan W. Irwin wrote: | I have just heard a rumor from one of my Debian contacts that gnuplot | may adopt a non-free license. If that happens, we may be getting | some gnuplot refugees starting to use PLplot, and it might be worth | our while to encourage this by implementing a programme to translate | gnuplot scripts into PLplot (python?) scripts. | | Do we have the (gnuplot) expertise here to make such an "import" | programme? My own memory of gnuplot is pretty vague since I last used | that package 5 or 6 years ago. Octave uses gnuplot as its plotting program. The plplot bindings to=20 octave, besides the API entry points, also has octave scripts that=20 emulate most of the octave plotting commands. I had difficulties=20 emulating some gnuplot features, and some are even impossible to=20 emulate. Gnuplot is interactive, and if you say "title blabla" the old title=20 will disappear and the one appears. The same if you change axis scales=20 or types, etc. This kind of features poses some problems. Not to talk=20 about the gnuplot "processing" features (minimization...) I don't think that writing a program to emulate gnuplot should be a=20 target to plplot development. But gnuplot users could write it! Joao | | 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 | __________________________ | | Linux-powered astrophysics | __________________________ | | | _______________________________________________ | Plplot-devel mailing list | Plp...@li... | https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel |