Re: Empty plot

[John B. Thoo]

On Dec 17, 2010, at 11:57 AM, bpabbott wrote:

> On Dec 17, 2010, at 02:24 PM, "John B. Thoo" <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
>> On Dec 17, 2010, at 8:26 AM, bpabbott wrote:
>> 
>> > On Dec 17, 2010, at 09:24 AM, "John B. Thoo" <address@hidden> wrote:
>> > 
>> >> On Dec 17, 2010, at 5:19 AM, Ben Abbott wrote:
>> >> 
>> >> > On Dec 16, 2010, at 10:39 PM, John B. Thoo wrote:
>> >> > 
>> >> >> Hi. I'm sorry if this is a FAQ, but I haven't been able to find an 
>> >> >> answer.
>> >> >> 
>> >> >> I'm using Octave 3.2.3 on Mac OS X 10.6.4 in X11. When I try to plot, 
>> >> >> I get an empty plot window and this:
>> >> >> 
>> >> >> octave-3.2.3:1> getenv ("GNUTERM")
>> >> >> ans = x11
>> >> >> octave-3.2.3:2> x = 0:0.1:pi;
>> >> >> octave-3.2.3:3> plot (x, sin(x))
>> >> >> octave-3.2.3:4> 
>> >> >> gnuplot> set palette file "-" binary record=64 using 1:2:3:4;
>> >> >> ^
>> >> >> line 0: Gray scale not sorted in gradient.
>> >> >> 
>> >> >> 
>> >> >> octave-3.2.3:4>
>> >> >> 
>> >> >> When I start gnuplot on its own, I see that I have Version 4.2 
>> >> >> patchlevel 5.
>> >> >> 
>> >> >> Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
>> >> >> 
>> >> >> ---John.
>> >> >> 
>> >> >> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> >> "There are no atheists in foxholes."
>> >> >> ---Fr. William T. Cummings, M.M. (WWII, Philippines)
>> >> >> [_The Grunt Padre_, CMJ Marian Pub., p. 56]
>> >> > 
>> >> > http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismmyths/a/AtheistsFoxhole.htm
>> >> > 
>> >> > John, please tell us where you got your Octave. Was it from MacPorts, 
>> >> > Fink, Sourceforge, or somewhere else?
>> >> > 
>> >> > Also it is possible to have more than one version of gnuplot. Please 
>> >> > check which one Octave is using by typing ...
>> >> > 
>> >> > __gnuplot_version__
>> >> > 
>> >> > Since you're set up to use X11, please make sure the X11.app is running 
>> >> > before you try to plot. I've had some troubles in X11 on MacOS X, and 
>> >> > often have to quit X11 and start it again.
>> >> > 
>> >> > Ben
>> >> 
>> >> Hello, Ben. Thanks for your reply.
>> >> 
>> >> I'm using Thomas Treichi's binary of Octave from sourceforge. The thing 
>> >> is that I could plot in X11 using Thomas's previous version on my former 
>> >> PowerBook 12". It was only after upgrading to Octave 32.3 i386 because I 
>> >> had gotten a MacBook Pro that plotting broke.
>> >> 
>> >> I had asked about this previously
>> >> 
>> >> <http://octave.1599824.n4.nabble.com/set-palette-file-quot-quot-binary-record-64-using-1-2-3-4-td2292036.html>
>> >> 
>> >> but didn't get any reply then. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to 
>> >> figure out the problem since, either.
>> >> 
>> >> By the way, this is what Octave returns for gnuplot version:
>> >> 
>> >> octave-3.2.3:1> __gnuplot_version__
>> >> ans = 4.2.5
>> >> octave-3.2.3:2>
>> >> 
>> >> Thanks again for your reply.
>> >> 
>> >> ---John.
>> > 
>> > I haven't encountered the specific problem you are seeing. However, since 
>> > you are using SnowLeopard, you'll want to read the link below, before 
>> > upgrading to 10.6.5.
>> > 
>> > http://sourceforge.net/projects/octave/files//Octave%20MacOSX%20Binary/2009-10-03%20binary%20of%20Octave%203.2.3/README_OSX1065txt/view
>> > 
>> > If you stick to 10.6.4, you might try installing a newer version of 
>> > gnuplot. Be sure to place it where the one from Thomas' bundled is ... or 
>> > use the "gnuplot_binary" function to point to the new one.
>> > 
>> > Ben
>> 
>> Thanks for the link, Ben. That will come in handy.
>> 
>> On a lark, I typed in an xterm window "which gnuplot" and got this:
>> 
>> [502] bash-3.2$ which gnuplot
>> /usr/bin/gnuplot
>> [503] bash-3.2$ /usr/bin/gnuplot 
>> 
>> G N U P L O T
>> Version 4.2 patchlevel 5 
>> last modified Mar 2009
>> System: Darwin 10.4.0
>> 
>> Copyright (C) 1986 - 1993, 1998, 2004, 2007 - 2009
>> Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others
>> 
>> Type `help` to access the on-line reference manual.
>> The gnuplot FAQ is available from http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/
>> 
>> Send bug reports and suggestions to <http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuplot>
>> 
>> 
>> Terminal type set to 'x11'
>> gnuplot> quit
>> [504] bash-3.2$
>> 
>> I had compiled this from source when I also compiled Octave from source 
>> (before I began to use Thomas's binary).
>> 
>> So, perhaps I'm not using the Gnuplot.app binary that is in the Applications 
>> folder with Octave.app. Could this be a problem? If it could, what would be 
>> a way to fix this? (What is the "gnuplot_binary" function?)
>> 
>> Thanks again.
>> 
>> ---John.
> 
> I recommend you uninstall the gnuplot you built from source. My understanding 
> is that the gnuplot makefile includes an "uninstall" target.

To do this, do I type

  make uninstall gnuplot

from inside /usr/bin?  (Sorry, I'm not sure about these Unix'y things.  I know 
just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be constructive.)


> I'm not recommending you not build gnuplot and/or octave from the sources. I 
> do that myself, and and would like to see other OSX users do so as well. If 
> you want to build either of those, I recommend using Fink or MacPorts to 
> supply the dependencies (MacPorts is a better choice for Octave's 
> dependencies). You may even want to create a local package for Fink to allow 
> for easy management of these apps (or a port file for MacPorts). If you build 
> independent of the Fink and MacPorts, I recommend you use "/usr/local/..." as 
> the installation prefix.

I'll keep that in mind.  For the moment, I'm happy to use Thomas's binary. :-)


> The gnuplot_binary function is an octave function that lets to tell octave 
> which gnuplot binary you'd like to run.
> 
> See the help for more info.
> 
>       help gnuplot_binary
> 
> To see which gnuplot Octave is using, type ...
> 
>       system (sprintf ("which %s", gnuplot_binary))

octave-3.2.3:2> system (sprintf ("which %s",gnuplot_binary))
/Applications/Gnuplot.app/Contents/Resources/bin/gnuplot
ans = 0
octave-3.2.3:3>

So, apparently Octave is using Gnuplot.app in the Applications folder.  (Should 
I still uninstall /usr/bin/gnuplot?)


BTW, I have the same empty plot problem when I use Aquaterm.

octave-3.2.3:3> setenv ("GNUTERM", "aqua")
octave-3.2.3:4> x = 0:0.1:pi;
octave-3.2.3:5> plot (x, sin (x))
octave-3.2.3:6> 
multiplot> set palette file "-" binary record=64 using 1:2:3:4;
                                                              ^
           line 0: Gray scale not sorted in gradient.


octave-3.2.3:6>

Does this provide any hints re the problem?  Thanks again.

---John.