[Discuss] PLplot and gnuplot

[pw]

Alan W. Irwin wrote:
 >
> PLplot and gnuplot are completely different plotting software packages.  In
> terms of SourceForge popularity (download rates, etc.), I think it is fair
> to say gnuplot is number one in the free scientific plotting category.  But
> if you are in the market for a fairly simple scientific plotting API 
> (easily
> learned in a few hours) that has been interfaced to many languages on all
> the major platforms with many useful plotting device drivers, then you
> should give PLplot a try.
> 
> I understand you can actually compare PLplot and gnuplot from octave since
> octave has been interfaced to both.  However, I have never done that
> comparison because I am largely unfamiliar with octave (and gnuplot). (I
> mostly use the python interface to PLplot for my plotting needs.)
> 
> If you want examples of PLplot use in octave (and many other computer
> languages), consult http://plplot.sourceforge.net/examples/index.html. 
> Also,
> if you go through the usual cmake, make, and make install sequence for
> PLplot, then all the standard examples for all languages (including octave)
> are installed in $prefix/share/plplot5.7.2/examples, where $prefix is the
> installation prefix.  The plplot-test.sh script there also runs all the
> examples in all languages.
> 
> Alan


Hmmm..., It looks like Octave uses the PLplot API to plot with PLplot
rather than just the standard 'plot' and 'axis' commands. You need a lot
more lines of code to make a plot with PLplot than just using gnuplot.

I think, in terms of Octave, what PLplot may need is a wrapper
that parses and perhaps extends the gnuplot command line output
from Octave. That would make it a bit more transparent.

Most people using Octave are moving over from Matlab. They probably
would avoid using an API for plotting as opposed to the built-in
commands.

Maybe next weekend I'll look at this and see how difficult it
would be to wrap PLplot into a command line tool that parses
gnuplot syntax. (...or does this already exist?) [gplot2pl ??]

It would certainly be nice to use some of the variety of
additional graph types provided by PLplot.

Out of curiosity, does PLplot allow a background colour other
than black? Printing black graphs is rather taxing on the printer ink.

Peter