From graphics-request at octave dot org Mon Feb 13 14:16:13 2006
Subject: Re: Handle graphics plotting functions
From: Quentin Spencer <qspencer at ieee dot org>
To: Daniel J Sebald <daniel dot sebald at ieee dot org>
CC: Shai Ayal <shaiay at gmail dot com>, Sebastien Loisel <sloisel@gmail.com>,         octave-graphics <graphics@octave.org>
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:10:58 -0600

Daniel J Sebald wrote:

> Shai Ayal wrote:
>
>> Sebastien,
>>
>> I meant to cc the list but I hit the "reply" instead of "reply-all".
>> I'm cc'ing the list on this one.
>>
>> Anyway, I am not sure I understand all of your email. I will start by
>> presenting my ideas and octplot:
>>
>> handle graphics
>> ===========
>> I see handle graphics as way for the user to gain total control of the
>> plot. This allows for tweaking which is so often needed when making a
>> formal plot (i.e. for a paper/presentation) and for inventing whole
>> new kinds of graphs and building them using the primitive building
>> blocks available. Both these features are missing in gnuplot.
>
>
> What's missing in gnuplot?


Two things come to mind:
1. better way of passing binary data to gnuplot--plotting large data 
sets and big 3d plots are extremely slow.
2. regular releases--everytime someone complains about a missing 
feature, we're told that the elusive gnuplot 4.1 has that feature. Yes, 
I can get it from CVS, but John isn't going to incorporate code in 
octave that uses those features they don't exist in a widely available 
version of gnuplot.

-Quentin