[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #48484] gnuplot: printing figure into file results in mostly black image (Windows)

[Hartmut]

Follow-up Comment #8, bug #48484 (project octave):

I have done some testing on the PATH environment variable under Windows 7, and
what Octave 4.0.3 does to it. (This was done with the Win7 machine where I
originally observed this undesired behavior.):

* There is no user defined variable with the name Path.

* There is a system wide defined varialbe with the name "Path". It has very
many entries, one of them is a path to a different gnuplot binary (from a
Python installation), it also has a permanent entry from some older Octave
installation bin directory. I will call the content of this variable "STUFF"
for now.

* When I start Octave 4.0.3 by executing octave-gui.exe (that is my normal way
to start it, I have a shortcut link in my taskbar.) then the result of
getenv("PATH") is the following: 


STUFF;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\bin;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\notepad++;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\libexec\octave\4.0.3\site\exec\i686-w64-mingw32;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\libexec\octave\api-v50+\site\exec\i686-w64-mingw32;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\libexec\octave\site\exec\i686-w64-mingw32;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\libexec\octave\4.0.3\exec\i686-w64-mingw32;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\bin


* When I start Octave 4.0.3 via the generated desktop links, or via the
generated vbs script, then the result of getenv("PATH") is this:


C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\bin;
STUFF;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\bin;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\notepad++;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\libexec\octave\4.0.3\site\exec\i686-w64-mingw32;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\libexec\octave\api-v50+\site\exec\i686-w64-mingw32;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\libexec\octave\site\exec\i686-w64-mingw32;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\libexec\octave\4.0.3\exec\i686-w64-mingw32;
C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\bin


The integrated gnuplot version of Octave 4.0.3 sits in
"C:\Octave\Octave-4.0.3\bin"

Conclusion: Only in my special case of starting Octave via a direct link to
the Octave binary, the problem occurs. In all other cases the Octave bin patch
(where the Octave version of gnuplot sits) is pre-pended to the path variable,
and thus this gnuplot version should be properly used. Everything should be
fine if someone uses the generated desktop links or the generated vbs-files.
(I can only verify this in a couple of days.)

But: Why do I start Octave the way I do? The two integrated ways of starting
Octave canNOT be integrated into the Windows taskbar. All other software
programs I start, are started via this task bar, so I needed to find a way to
do this for Octave as well.

My ideas to prevent other users to have the same trouble:
* Generate a vbs-script that also shows the Octave icon during the time it is
not running. The current vbs-script will instead show some vbs-icon normally,
that only changes to be the Octave icon after clicking on it.
* Generate some other method (like all other windows programs do) to stick the
Octave "start button" to the taskbar or to the start menue, via a right-click
menu with the mouse over its entry in the full start menu.


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