Re: Plotting...

[Vinayak Dutt]

Ian Searle writes:
#
#       There are some disadvantages to using gnuplot, which
#       ultimately caused me to switch to Plplot. (1) gnuplot plotting
#       must be done with temporary files, since gnuplot cannot read
#       data from stdin. (2) gnuplot lacks some important features,
#       primarily multiple plots per page, and (3) interactive
#       plotting with gnuplot requires the OS be multi-tasking (this
#       rules out DOS/Mac). Note that Plplot is not perfect either, I
#       will get around to criticizing it later :-) But, on the whole
#       Plplot is an excellent package. Furthermore, the
#       developers/maintainers are good people.
#
  I guess one could argue about multi-tasking is good thing or not. For one it 
helps
in one sense that one could create multiple tools geared for differing tasks 
and let
each tool do things which its good at rather than build one huge monolithic 
tool. I think
thats the basic Unix philosophy. Having graphics tool separate from Octave 
helps in 
maintaining Octave also as one does not have to recompile Octave every time 
there 
are fixes to gnuplot. The two tools could be improved independently. Also one 
is not
just limited to gnuplot, any tool which does the job could be used. All 
graphics tools
have pluses and minuses, and so it would be certainly beneficial to have 
ability to
pick the graphics tool according to the requirments.

--vinayak-
/*
 * vinayak dutt
 * graduate student, ultrasound research
 * mayo graduate school, rochester mn
 *
 * e-mail: address@hidden
 *         address@hidden
 *
 */
#include "disclaimer.h"