Re: Text on plots

[Ben Abbott]

On Wednesday, January 28, 2009, at 08:15AM, "dmelliott" <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: Ben Abbott 
>  To: dmelliott 
>  Cc: GNU Octave ; address@hidden 
>  Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 9:33 AM
>  Subject: Re: Text on plots
>
>
>  On Tuesday, January 27, 2009, at 10:10AM, "dmelliott" <address@hidden> wrote:
>  >
>  >  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  >  From: Ben Abbott 
>  >  To: dmelliott 
>  >  Cc: GNU Octave 
>  >  Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 7:52 AM
>  >  Subject: Re: Text on plots
>  >
>  >
>  >On Monday, January 26, 2009, at 08:14AM, "dmelliott" <address@hidden> wrote:
>  >
>  >>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  >>  From: Ben Abbott 
>  >>  To: dmelliott 
>  >>  Cc: address@hidden 
>  >>  Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 2:49 PM
>  >>  Subject: Re: Text on plots
>  >>
>  >>  On Jan 25, 2009, at 1:26 PM, dmelliott wrote:
>  >>
>  >>  >
>  >>  > Dear Help,
>  >>  >
>  >>  >     When I copy the example in the "octave help" at the beginning of  
>  >>  > section 15.1.3 Plot Annotations into an m-file and try to run it,  
>  >>  > absolutely no text appears on the graph other than the axis numbering.
>  >>  >     I have tried the methods that I used, successfully, in Matlab,  
>  >>  > and they do not work either.  How can I make a graph title and axis  
>  >>  > labels on a figure generated with "plot"?
>  >>  >     I am using the handle graphics.
>  >>  >
>  >>  >
>  >>  >                                                                        
>               More 
>  >>  >  than a bit frustrated,
>  >>  >
>  >>  >                                                                        
>                              Douglas 
>  >>  >  M Elliott
>  >>
>  >>  I assume you are trying something like what is below?
>  >>
>  >>  set (get (gca, 'xlabel'), 'string', 'some xlabel'))
>  >>
>  >>  Depending upon the version of octave you are running that may not work.
>  >>
>  >>  It does work for me (Octave 3.0.3). What version of Octave are your  
>  >>  running?
>  >>
>  >>  If you are running an older version, you can update your octave or  
>  >>  take the advice offered by Bill and Ivan.
>  >>
>  >>  Ben
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>Dear Mr. Abbott,
>  >>
>  >>    Thank you for your very speedy reply.
>  >>
>  >>    The way you suggest makes perfect sense to me, having used Matlab for 
> years.  However, I can not get it to work.  If I could ask a small favor of 
> you, it would be greatly appreciated.
>  >>
>  >>    Could you rewrite and test the example from the directions:
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>                                    x=-10:0.1:10;
>  >>                                    plot(x,sin(x));
>  >>                                    title("sin(x)  for  x=-10:0.1:10");
>  >>                                    xlabel("x");
>  >>                                    ylabel("sin(x)");
>  >>                                    text(pi,0.7,"arbitrary text");
>  >>                                    legend("sin(x)");
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>and send the working code back.  If I had something that I know should 
> work, then I might be able to proceed.
>  >>
>  >>    I have tried every combination of things that I can think of, with no 
> success.  I uninstalled V3.0.3, download it again, and installed it only to 
> have exactly the same results.  The OS is XP.  When installing, every 
> possible option was chosen.
>  >>
>  >>    There are several things that are working just fine such as line,  
> toolbar, numbertitle, figure name and position, axes tics, grid, and number 
> formatting, etc.  Everything but the text.
>  >>
>  >>
>  >>                                                                           
>        Thanking you in advance,
>  >>
>  >>                                                                           
>                    Douglas M. Elliott
>  >
>  >
>  >Your code works perfectly for me. I have no experience with octave on XP. 
> In the event someone else can help, I've cc'd the help list again (we dropped 
> of at some point).
>  >
>  >It may be that octave is working properly and that the trouble is with 
> gnuplot. Please try to determine what version of gnuplot you have installed, 
> and were you got it from. It may also be useful to know where you obtained 
> Octave from.
>  >
>  >Regarding gnuplot, we can take a look at the information being sent from 
> octave to gnuplot. That should help us determine where your problem lies. You 
> can save the gnuplot stream by typing the following after the plot commands 
> have been executed.
>  >
>  >        drawnow ("windows", "/dev/null", true, "windows.gp")
>  >
>  >Please attach the result to your next reply and I'll look it over.
>  >
>  >Ben
>  >
>  >p.s. please respond at the bottom so that others who join the discussion 
> have an easier time following along. Thanks.
>  >
>  >
>  >___________________________________
>  >
>  >
>  >Dear Mr. Abbott,
>  >
>  >    Whatever it is that I have, I got from:
>  >
>  >        
> http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2888&package_id=40078
>  >
>  >selecting V3.0.3.
>  >
>  >
>  >    As to the gnuplot version, using the function given in the included 
> docs:
>  >
>  >        version=__gnuplot_version__()
>  >
>  >version 4.3 is reported.  This strikes me as odd since SourceForge's latest 
> is 4.2.4.  The executables themselves were, for some reason, written without 
> a "properties" section, so I can not tell from that.
>  >
>  >
>  >    Alternatively, it could be in the mfiles.  I was advised earlier, for a 
> related problem, to try:
>  >
>  >        pkg load jhandles
>  >        help uicontrol
>  >
>  >by Mr. Goffioul, and got an error message saying that uicontrol was not 
> documented.  I get any number of "not there's" when I try to set properties 
> that the directions say I should be able to, so it could be in the mfile 
> interfaces.
>  >
>  >
>  >    I note that there is a caution for the 4.2 versions at SourceForge:
>  >
>  >"- Octave has recently changed its method of sending data to gnuplot for  
> plotting; data is passed in-line through the pipe to gnuplot's stdin.   
> Unfortunately, the current Gnuplot 4.2 code does not support mouse 
> interaction with in-line data. This problem is fixed in the CVS version, but 
> not in the current release version 4.2.4."
>  >
>  >Now if I knew where the CVS version was, I might be able to download it.
>  >
>  >
>  >    I tried your suggestion:
>  >
>  >            drawnow ("windows","/dev/null",true,"windows.gp")
>  >
>  >thank you, and got:
>  >
>  >        error: unsupported output format: windows
>
>  ok, as I don't have a windows box, it is likely I got that wrong. Try
>
>          drawnow ("x11", "/dev/null", true, "x11.gp")
>
>  You will get some errors, but the x11.gp file should be written to the 
> current directory.
>
>  >This makes sense given the function file content:
>  >
>  >        function drawnow (term, file, mono, debugfile)
>  >
>  >        h = get(0, 'currentfigure');
>  >        if (! isempty (h) && h != 0 && ishandle (h))
>  >          fig = __get_object__ (h);
>  >          if (nargin == 0)
>  >            fig.redraw ();
>  >          elseif (nargin >= 2)
>  >            elt = cellstr (split (term, " "));
>  >            switch elt{1}
>  >            case {"png", "postscript"}
>  >              fig.print (elt{1}, file);
>  >            otherwise
>  >              error ("unsupported output format: %s", term);
>  >            endswitch
>  >          endif
>  >        endif
>  >
>  >        endfunction
>
>  hmmm ... that is definitely not the correct file. I'd guess you had an 
> earlier octave install and your present installation is pointed at its path.
>
>  What do you get when you type the following
>
>      path
>
>  In any event, try typing the following lines ...
>
>      path (pathdef);
>      savepath;
>
>  ... and then try some more plots. Hopefully, that will fix your problem.
>
>  Ben
>____________________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>Dear Mr. Abbott,
>
>    I forgot that you are using a different installation then mine.  The 
> "drawmow" that jhandles uses is the above.  There is another "drawnow", which 
> I suspect is the one you thought would be used.  The above is in:
>
>        "X:\Octave\share\octave\packages\jhandles-0.3.4"
>
>whereas the one I think you wanted is in:
>
>        "X:\Octave\share\octave\3.0.3\m\plot"

ok, I missed that you were using jhandles. Jhandles doesn't install on my Mac, 
so I won't be any help with that.

>Since I was using jhandles, the copied one is the one in the jhandles path.  
>There are any number of similar files for both, since graphics is graphics.
>
>    I decided to try the other graphics, so I uninstalled and reinstalled 
> Octave using the second copy obtained from the above source, and chose 
> gnuplot as the default.  Then I again tried the sample in the instructions 
> just after the start of section 15.1.3.  This yielded:
>
>>>(pgnuplot.exe:1572): Pango-WARNING **: couldn't load font "Helvetica 
>>>Not-Rotated 200", falling back to "Sans Not-Rotated 200", expect ugly 
>>>output.<<
>
>Apparently, there is some corruption in the plotting font file!  If both 
>graphics use the same font source, and the handle stuff is less mature, thus 
>having a bit weaker error trapping, this might be why no text appeared in the 
>handle graph, and there was no warning.

This sort of error isn't that unusual. Was a plot produced?

You can suppress the warning by setting the default axes font to something your 
system supports. Apparently you don't have a Helvetica font available (is that 
normal gnuplot on Windows ?). Try the command below before plotting (it looks 
like you have "Sans" available, but I'm only guessing what a proper fontname 
would be).

    set (0,"defaultaxesfontname", "Sans")

Ben