Re: graphics-branch in CVS

[Joe Koski]

on 12/8/06 12:00 AM, Timothée Lecomte at address@hidden wrote:

> Joe Koski wrote:
>> on 12/7/06 4:27 PM, Timothée Lecomte at address@hidden wrote:
>> 
>>   
>>> John W. Eaton wrote:
>>>     
>>>> On  7-Dec-2006, Timoth�e Lecomte wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> | gnuplot 4.2 (rc2 available) has a way to determine that. It can be done
>>>> | with the read-only variables GPVAL_X_MIN and friends. Use 'show
>>>> | variables all' to see all the available state variables, and 'help
>>>> | gnuplot-defined' for more information.
>>>> 
>>>> OK, but we are communicating with gnuplot through a one-directional
>>>> pipe.  Do you have a reliable way to do two-way communication with
>>>> gnuplot?
>>>> 
>>>> jwe
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>> Oh, I thought octave was using a two-way pipe, as it was pointed out
>>> some time ago to get feedback from a click on the plot window.
>>> If it's not the case, then I don't know...
>>> 
>>> Timothée
>>>     
>> 
>> Timothée, John,
>> 
>> With the gnuplot-4.2.rc2 installed on my G5 Mac, I get the following from
>> Timothée's suggested commands:
>> 
>> Joe-Koskis-Computer:~/Codes/EMD Revised Convergence jakoski$ gnuplot
>> 
>> <...>
>> Terminal type set to 'aqua'
>> gnuplot> set font "helvetica,24"
>> gnuplot> show variables all
>> <...>
>> Note that my change of font and font size does not show in the output. How
>> would the "read-only" variables such as GPVAL_X_MAX be accessed from the
>> interface? Is there a one-to-one mapping from all gnuplot set commands to
>> the "read-only" variables?
>>   
> Hi Joe,
> 
> For the font and font size command, you've been mislead by the
> flexibility of gnuplot parser.
> "set font" doesn't exist by itself, it's an abbreviation of "set
> fontpath' (try "show font" to be convinced, which will be expanded to
> "show fontpath").
> 
> Instead, you can set the global font and fontsize when setting the terminal:
>     set terminal aqua font "helvetica,24"
> or for each plot object separately, such as:
>     set title "myplot" font "helvetica,24"
> 
> As for the GPVAL_X_MAX and friends, they appear once the plot command is
> issued (how would gnuplot know the axis limits without plotting and thus
> reading the data ?).
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Timothée
> 

Timothée,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I was showing both my ignorance and laziness by
not looking up the gnuplot font specification commands. What I was trying to
do was get an example of how gnuplot tells me what's going on. I suspect
that it is a combination of the "show" command along with the "read-only"
variables. 

I guess what I was hoping for was a way of writing preference files that
could be kept external to gnuplot, and recalled as needed, for example, as a
template for a new plot, or for modifying an old plot. To my knowledge, both
Kaleidagraph and Graceplot have similar features. How much trouble would it
be to add such a feature to gnuplot? I'm sure a two-way pipe would be much
faster, and my usual disclaimer: I'm a programmer, but not a developer, so
I'll stop after this message.

And, to answer the unasked question, no I haven't had a chance to look
further into bundling wxt for the Mac. I have some "real work" that's taking
precedence over such activities right now. Sorry.

Joe