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Re: gnuplot backend (was Re: Patch to add axis position property)
From: |
Shai Ayal |
Subject: |
Re: gnuplot backend (was Re: Patch to add axis position property) |
Date: |
Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:44:45 +0300 |
On 8/14/07, Daniel J Sebald <address@hidden> wrote:
> Yes, you may; valid question. John has stated this now and then. However,
> I'm a little more comfortable with gnuplot than most, I suppose, for several
> reasons. Yes, gnuplot has its limitations and has been feature-barren in the
> past. However, there are a few developers that have added features at a
> faster pace lately. The advantages are the wealth of output formats,
> especially latex/ps. To someone with a command line, linux and nice final
> plot (with some work) computer philosophy, that is preferred over the more
> GUI-like plotting. Also, gnuplot is an interpreter, as opposed to being
> compiled into Octave. Some see that as a disadvantage, perhaps speed wise,
> but my guess is that compiling an output-format-rich plotting library into
> Octave would be more work than one thinks. One would have to program the
> margins, font size, color etc. inside Octave, probably no less work than
> __go_draw_axes__.m. Then, one step further, I think the goal is GUI
> interactive fine-tuning!
, w
> hich makes the programming task even greater.
>
> Which brings up the main issue, i.e., someone or a group of individuals with
> time to dedicate to an Octave graphics engine. Paying someone to do that
> might get the ball rolling, but I'm not suggesting that.
I agree that this is no small task. However, we do not have to start
from scratch. There are already programs out there which implement a
lot of this functionality -- octplot, yapso, oplot, knewplot and more.
It's still a lot of work, but not as much as starting from scratch.
I have already started this, and I will try to make it as
programmer-friendly as possible so that others will be able to
contribute
> On the other hand, the handle graphics transition went more smoothly than I
> expected (relatively speaking), so maybe I'm over-estimating the amount of
> work. Also, I think that what John has set up now is nice. All the
> engine-dependent code is in __go_draw_axes__.m, __go_close_all__.m, etc.
> (i.e., "graphics output") and there is little if any core graphics code in
> these files. If these were bundled under one subdirectory, they could be
> considered a package, of which gnuplot support is just another option that
> could be selected when Octave is installed. Whether eventually that means
> internal compiled functions (for a little extra speed), external functions,
> don't know. This ability to select graphics engine would be a feature in
> itself.
Yes, I think that gnuplot should stay an option -- It is mature,
stable and produces very nice graphs in a variety of output formats.
This functionality will take a lot of time to achieve in any other
back-end
Shai
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, (continued)
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, John W. Eaton, 2007/08/09
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, Peter Gustafson, 2007/08/09
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, John W. Eaton, 2007/08/09
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, John W. Eaton, 2007/08/09
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, Peter Gustafson, 2007/08/10
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, John W. Eaton, 2007/08/10
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, Peter Gustafson, 2007/08/10
- Re: Patch to add axis position property, John W. Eaton, 2007/08/10
Re: Patch to add axis position property, Daniel J Sebald, 2007/08/13