Re: fltk printing

[Ben Abbott]

On Jul 24, 2010, at 12:29 AM, Shai Ayal wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 12:50 AM, Ben Abbott <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On Jul 20, 2010, at 2:00 PM, Michael D Godfrey wrote:
>> 
>>> Shai,
>>> 
>>> I just noticed something that I thought I should ask
>>> about before doing more:
>>> 
>>> First, I noticed that when the fltk backend is active,
>>> since the latest reorganizing of print.m and __gnuplot__print,
>>> etc. fltk only does eps output.  But, I happened to be
>>> doing some plotting in a directory which had a copy of
>>> the old print.m it.  Using the old print.m and fltk backend
>>> I could generate pdf without problems.
>>> 
>>> I looked at the code and there is quite a lot in
>>> __gnuplot__print__.m  that is not gnuplot specific. In
>>> particular the use of ghostscript to do things like pdf,
>>> and all the other conversions not handled by gnuplot.
>>> 
>>> So, rather than duplicate code in __fltk__print__.m
>>> it appears that  something like a __ghostscript__.m
>>> script is called for.  Both __gnuplot__print__.m and
>>> __fltk__print__.m would use that for all the output types
>>> handled by ghostscript.
>>> 
>>> So, does this sound like the right thing to do?
>>> 
>>> Michael
>> 
>> Michael,
>> 
>> I'm working on adding the tex / pstex / epslatex / epslatexstandalone 
>> terminals to __fltk_print__. I hope to be able to propose a changeset in the 
>> next few days.  Have you made any local changes to __fltk_print__ yet?
>> 
>> If not, shall I email you a preliminary version of what I have to make 
>> integrating our efforts easier? ... or if you have, perhaps you can send me 
>> a copy of what you have?
>> 
> I also have made no uncommitted changes
> 
> Shai

Ok. I start by committing some new functions.

        scripts/plot/__ghostscript_binary__.m : returns the name of the gs 
binary.
        scripts/plot/__get_eps_bbox__.m : extract the eps-file's bbox.
        scripts/plot/__fix_eps_bbox__.m : replace bbox with a tight version.
        scripts/plot/psfrag.m : uses psfrag to substitute latex text into eps 
files.

I'll leave __ghostscript__.m to Michael.

I'm considering a new approach to the print options. They are in a bit of a 
mess presently. I'll make a proposal once I have something functioning and 
tested. Essentially, I'm planning to have the options apply more uniformly to 
all device types.

I don't plan to modify __gnuplot_print__, until after an acceptable solution 
for __fltk_print__ is finished.  At that point, the gnuplot version can be 
modified to behave in consistent manner. Presently, I don't expect this will 
limit printing for the gnuplot backend.

Ben