Myths about gnuplot

[Lars Hecking]

 It looks like this list is getting a more than fair share of gnuplot
 discussion, so I thought it would be a good idea to hop in and say
 a few words.

 1. Do *not* send me personal email about gnuplot. Use the
    established channels:
    o address@hidden       for bug reports and patches for
                                      the *release* version
    o address@hidden      for user problems. This list is
                                      linked with comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot
    o address@hidden for development issues, feature
                                      patches, beta versions

 2. An update for the gnuplot FAQ is in the works.
    http://www-ihe.etec.uni-karlsruhe.de/mitarbeiter/vonhagen/gnuplot-faq.html
    Suggestions for the FAQ should be sent either to info-gnuplot-beta or
    myself, or Juergen directly.

 3. Status
    The official release version of gnuplot is 3.7, patchlevel 0,
    date Thu Jan 14 19:34:53 BST 1999. The announcement with a list
    of mirror sites was posted to this list back in January.
    In the meantime, this version has also been made available on
    CTAN in /tex-archive/graphics/gnuplot.

    Quite a few serious bugs have been discovered since this release.
    A set of patches is available as
    ftp://ftp.ucc.ie/pub/gnuplot/patches/gnuplot-3.7.0-3.7.0.1.diff.gz
    ftp://ftp.gnuplot.vt.edu/pub/gnuplot/patches/gnuplot-3.7.0-3.7.0.1.diff.gz

    The current version of this patch set brings gnuplot up to version 3.7,
    patchlevel 0.1, date Fri Jun 18 13:50:56 BST 1999. The patches are
    updated whenever new bugs are discovered, but the patchlevel remains
    locked at 0.1. This is a stupid mistake on my behalf, as I was already
    issuing beta releases before the first patch release. To be rectified
    after the next general release.

    The current beta release is gnuplot-3.7.0.9.tar.gz, available from
    the beta/ subdirectory at distribution sites. Changes since the
    release are listed in the NEWS file. Major new features are new
    drivers for BeOS, MacOS X Server, metapost, perltk (in tkcanvas);
    new gnuplot-mode.el for Emacsen; OS/2 mouse support; tilde-expansion
    of filenames; new "loadpath" variable; GNU libplot 2.2 support;
    backtic expansion in quoted strings; new directory structure.

    The next official release will be 3.7.1 or (more likely) 3.8.
    There is no schedule yet.

 4. Miscellaneous

   The following are a couple of unattributed quotes from this mailing
   list, with comments.

   | ... When Octave-2.0.14 was released, the *official*
   | gnuplot was 3.5;

   This is not true. At the time octave-2.0.14 was released,
   gnuplot 3.7 had been out for almost three months. An announcement
   was posted to this list.

   | ... gnuplot development shutdown completely for years.

   Not true at all. Alex Woo released 3.5 in September 1993, and the
   first log entry for the to-be 3.6 version dates from 1993/10/06.
   David Denholm deserves a lot of credit for keeping the project
   together for five years!

   | ...  As of a couple of months ago, the FAQ was dated 1994.

   Unfortunately, yes. But this is changing now.

   | Another area for improvement would be libreadline and libhistory linking,
   | which would vastly improve the cli.

   Glue for GNU readline has been in gnuplot since IIRC beta 1.124 from
   August 1994.
   Use of an external gnuplot.history file (with GNU readline) was added
   in beta 3.7.0.2. I have a patch here to implement a "history" command
   with the builtin readline, and this will be made part of the distribution
   as soon as I get a patch for the equivalent functionality with GNU
   readline (gentle reminder; you know who you are :)

   | And I think it's bullshit. ...
   Whether or not you link your own, private version of gnuplot with GNU
   readline is your own business. The licences do not allow us to
   distribute gnuplot with GNU readline, but the least thing we can do
   is provide the hooks.

 5. The copyright discussion

   The current copyright situation is very unfortunate not only
   for gnuplot and octave users, but also for the gnuplot developers.
   We cannot even release "gnuplot-x.y" without violating the
   copyright _unless_ the copyright holders agree. This has worked
   ok in the past, but after the next release, I hope to improve
   this situation considerably. I have a very definite interest in
   change, as I have invested a lot of my own time and effort into
   gnuplot since I became involved in late 1996.

   If people go and bug TW about the status quo, please Cc: me.

   Religious flamewars GPL vs. The Rest of The World >/dev/null.


 Thanks for listening.

-- 
Do not meddle in the affairs of troff, for it is subtle and quick to
anger.



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