From octave-graphics-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu  Mon Jul 31 18:27:56 2000
Subject: Re: Unidentified subject!
From: Joao Cardoso <jcardoso at inescporto dot pt>
To: "Julian A. de Marchi, Ph.D." <julian at matlinks dot net>
CC: "Octave-Graphics at Bevo dot  Che. Wisc. Edu"   <octave-graphics@bevo.che.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 00:33:30 +0100

"Julian A. de Marchi, Ph.D." wrote:
> 
> Is this as good a place to start as any?
> 
> http://merlin.inescn.pt/~qual/tk_octave/tk_octave.html
> 
> Why might we not want to use PLplot or Octave/Tk?

tk_octave is a quick hack. I do not think, neither do John Eaton, that
such an approach should be encouraged.

However it works quite well, user programming is straightforward, and
GUI development is very easy with the help of an external GUI designer
(I use vtcl--most gui interfaces that you can see on the web page where
designed in less than half an hour--and I barely know tcl!)

plplot_octave is a script based package compatible with the standard
Octave plotting commands. I developed it because I needed some
facilities that gnuplot didn't had, mostly shaded plots, mouse
iteration, multi-figures, a tk driver, etc.

It is not a structured departure from Octave gnuplot interface.

> 
> Joaġ (bom dia!) says:

Ola'!

> 
> "PLplot also has its disadvantages:
>  It is not being actively maintained..."

I wrote that two years ago. Nowadays PLplot is more actively maintained,
although not as actively as Octave, e.g. The problem is that the five
years of inactivity has dispersed developers and interest. However
PLplot is the only LGPL scientific plotting library, to my knowledge,
and just by that it deserves some attention.

> 
> alors,
> Julian