#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by mojca@…): {{{ GNUPLOT VERSION 5.0.rc1 RELEASE NOTES ===================================== We are happy to announce a release candidate for gnuplot version 5. Version 5 will be a major release with significant new capabilities and enhancements compared to previous gnuplot versions. MAJOR NEW FEATURES ================== * The dot/dash pattern of a line can now be controlled independently from other properties using the keyword "dashtype". * Text markup now supports bold and italic font settings in addition to the subscript, superscript, font size and other options previously provided by the "enhanced text" mode. This mode is now the default. * Command scripts may place in-line data in a named data block for repeated plotting. * RGB colors can include an alpha-channel for transparency. E.g. SEETHRUBLU = (0xDD << 24) + (0x0 << 16) + (0x0 << 8) + (0xFF) set linetype N linecolor rgb SEETHRUBLU * Bit shift operators << and >> (used in above example) * Secondary axes (x2, y2) can be locked to the primary axis via a mapping function. In the simplest case this guarantees that the primary and secondary axis ranges are identical. In the general case it allows you to define a non-linear axis, something that previously was only possible for the special case of log scaling. * The "import" command attaches a user-defined function name to a function provided by an extenal shared object (i.e. a plugin). * Previous commands in the history list of an interactive session can be reexecuted by number. For example "history !5" will reexecute the command numbered 5 in the list reported by "history". * New plot styles "with parallelaxes", labeled contours. * New coordinate system (Degrees, Minutes, Seconds) "set xdata geographic". * Hypertext labels in the interactive terminals including web display using the HTML canvas or svg terminals. Many other additions are described in the "New Features" section of the documentation. CHANGES ======= Gnuplot development assigns very high priority to backward compatibility with earlier versions. For example any command script that worked in version 4.0 is expected to continue to work for all version 4 releases including the most recent one (4.6.5). However changes introduced in version 5 can affect the operation of some version 4 scripts. A brief summary of potentially incompatible changes is given here. * Earlier versions of gnuplot used the keyword "linetype" to mean both the color and the solid/dot/dash pattern of a line. Version 5 has separate keywords "linecolor" and "dashtype". You can assign any desired color and a dash pattern to any linetype. The program now uses a default set of 8 linetypes, all solid. You can change these or add new linetypes as you please, or include the desired color or dash pattern directly in a plot command. You do not need to change the current terminal or terminal mode in order to used dashed lines. * The handling of input data containing NaN, Inf, inconsistent number of data columns, or other unexpected content has changed. See documentation under "missing" for examples and figures. * Time coordinates are stored internally as the number of seconds relative to the standard unix epoch 1-Jan-1970. Earlier versions of gnuplot used a different epoch internally (1-Jan-2000). This change resolves inconsistencies introduced when time in seconds was generated externally. The epoch convention used by a particular gnuplot installation can be determined using the command `print strftime("%F",0)`. Time is now stored to at least millisecond precision. * The "reverse" keyword (e.g. "set xrange [*:*] reverse") now affects only autoscaling. It has no effect on explicit ranges. "set xrange [0:1] reverse" is _not_ the same as "set xrange [1:0]". * Options to the "fit" command are now given by "set fit ..." rather than by setting environmental variables. Fit can handle up to MAX_NUM_VAR independent variables (currently 12). Variables other than the first two (x, y) have been dissociated from axis names. E.g. "set urange [U1:U2]" has no effect on fitting. Use the command "set dummy ..." to assign names to fit variables 3 ... 12. * The function `timecolumn(N,"timeformat")` now has 2 parameters. Because the required second parameter is not associated with a particular data axis, this allows using the `timecolumn` function to read time data for reasons other than specifying the x or y coordinate. * The `call` command is implemented by providing a set of variables ARGC, ARG0, ..., ARG9. ARG0 holds the name of the script file being executed. ARG1 to ARG9 are string variables and thus may either be referenced directly or expanded as macros, e.g. @ARG1. The older convention for referencing call parameters as tokens $0 ... $9 is deprecated. * "unset xrange" (and other axis ranges) restores the default range. * "unset terminal" restores the original terminal of the current session. NOTES TO PACKAGERS AND TESTERS =============================== Configuration options for interactive use ----------------------------------------- The 5.0 source code supports three primary cross-platform output modes in addition to several platform-specific modes. 1) Qt The qt terminal supports interactive display with menu-driven output to png, svg or pdf. The final 5.0 release may also support scripted output to these same file formats but this is not present in rc1. If either Qt4 or Qt5 is detected by the configure script, this will be the default terminal. It is now the fastest and most full-featured interactive terminal option. To disable this terminal: ./configure --without-qt To force use of Qt4 even if Qt5 is present: ./configure --with-qt=qt4 2) Cairo/pango/wxWidgets This set of terminals includes - pngcairo, pdfcairo, epscairo, and cairolatex for output to a file - wxt for interactive display All of these will be built by default if the configuration script finds the required libcairo, libpango, libcairo, libwxgtk, and related support libraries To disable these terminals: ./configure --without-cairo ./configure --with-cairo --disable-wxt 3) X11 (the "classic" interactive interface) This used to be the preferred interactive interface, but the newer wxt and qt terminals offer nicer output and a wider range of features. Options for output to files --------------------------- Of course the terminals (output modes) present in previous gnuplot versions are also still available. These include, among many more obscure options: - png/jpeg/gif output via libgd - PostScript - Many flavors of TeX/LaTeX output, including TikZ and ConTeXt - Bitmapped output to support many older devices (e.g. HP deskjet, epson, seiko printers, pbm bitmapped graphics files) is available if needed but is no longer configured in by default. ./configure --with-bitmap-terminals Options for generating interactive plots for web display -------------------------------------------------------- - Mouseable output for display on the web can be created using either the canvas terminal (HTML5 2D canvas element) or the svg terminal. Both allow zooming, toggling plot elements on/off, and user-scriptable hot keys. Online demo plots ----------------- Demo plots illustrating new and old features are online at http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_5.0/ OTHER NOTES =============================== Installation ------------ You can download a source tarball for gnuplot version 5.0.rc1 from the gnuplot development site on SourceForge. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2055 Installation instructions are available in the source itself; the short version for linux/unix-like systems is to unpack the tarball and then build it: cd gnuplot-5.0.rc1 ; ./configure ; make test it: make check install it: make install Pay careful attention to the output of the ./configure script. It may indicate that some output drivers have been omitted because the necessary support libraries were not found. In general you need to have previously installed the "*-devel-*" versions of these libraries. Known issues ------------ - Mac OSX ships with a terminal input library that appears to be GNU libreadline, but isn't really. The program tries to cope with this, but you may get better results by configuring gnuplot to use either its own built-in readline routines or the real GNU libreadline. - The gnuplot build system is not very good at figuring out where to find or install LaTeX-related files. This can affect use of the new lua/tikz and ConTeXt terminals. - You can configure support for both wxt and qt into the same gnuplot executable, but only one of these two output modes can be used in any given gnuplot session. Support ------- Please report all bugs and installation problems to the bug tracker on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=2055&atid=102055 There is also an gnuplot discussion forum on usenet group comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot }}} -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:1> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by devans@…): A few lint problems {{{ $ port lint --nitpick ---> Verifying Portfile for gnuplot Error: Line 8 repeats inclusion of PortGroup xcodeversion Warning: Line 87 has trailing whitespace before newline Warning: Dependency path:lib/pkgconfig/pango.pc:pango specified multiple times in depends_lib ---> 1 errors and 2 warnings found. }}} -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:6> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by mk@…): My goodness, how did you spot this? -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:8> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by mojca@…): Replying to [comment:7 devans@…]:

Dependency issue:

gnuplot will optionally build with libcerf support if that port is installed. Probably should add this as a dependency or explicitly disable this feature (don't see an obvious configure option to do this though).

Weird. Because I was the creating a port for libcerf and I was complaining to gnuplot developers that they need to add better support for searching for libcerf to `configure.in`. And I forgot to add dependency. The dependency is totally optional (I don't know what it's used for), it's small (the compressed binary package is 54K) and has no further dependencies on its own. So maybe I should just include it unconditionally. -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:10> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by devans@…): Replying to [comment:8 mk@…]:

My goodness, how did you spot this?

Since we have been using the buildbots, I usually try testing ports as follows {{{ sudo port deactivate active sudo port configure gnuplot }}} This emulates the way the buildbots work and helps spot missing dependencies. Doing this yielded a configure message regarding no libcerf and then I looked to see if it was available in MacPorts. Note that I do this on a separate testing machine not a production one as this can be time consuming if you have a lot of ports installed. But it does help spot build failures due to missing dependencies before submission to the buildbots. -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:12> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by mojca@…): Changes that were relevant to the current port applied in r120163 and r120166. -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:14> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by mojca@…): Replying to [comment:15 devans@…]:

This would answer the question, "Ok, I installed the port -- what now?"

I fully sympathize with that, but ... isn't this a problem with almost any given package (other than those with a nice gui)? -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:16> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by devans@…): One more minor suggestion concerning the +qt variant. I note that the package supports both qt4 and qt5 so perhaps the current variant should be +qt4 anticipating the porting of qt5 some time in the future when you could add +qt5. Other than what I've posted previously, it looks like everything is working. I did some more testing this afternoon and was able to output to aquaterm, a wxt term window and an x11 term window with no problems using the default variants. However, when I build with +qt in addition to the default variants and try to use a wxt term for output I get the following: {{{ gnuplot> set term wxt Terminal type set to 'wxt' The wxt terminal cannot be used in a qt session }}} Using {{{ set term qt }}} works fine, so it may be that the +qt and +wxWidgets-3.0 variants should be made mutually exclusive. Overall, a nice data visualization package. -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:18> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0 ----------------------+---------------------- Reporter: mojca@… | Owner: mojca@… Type: update | Status: new Priority: Normal | Milestone: Component: ports | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: haspatch Port: gnuplot | ----------------------+---------------------- Comment (by mojca@…): Replying to [comment:17 devans@…]:

Yes, but this is a particularly complex package and the demos are an easy way to come up to speed. However, there is nothing that immediately tells you that there are demos or how to run them. But I guess you could leave it up to the user to figure it out (as I did) and wait for the tickets to come in saying the demos are broken. :-) I'll leave it up to you.

What exactly would you write in the notes? I remember my first experience from windows. One runs the exe, uses File->Open and it opens at location where the program is installed, so one just needs to pick the folder `demo` and then `all.dem` (or any other file for that matter). But I don't know how to replicate that user experience on Mac lacking a standalone Gnuplot.app (which would require a tiny bit of Qt expertise to write a Qt gui with "built-in" "terminal" to resemble the behaviour in windows). -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:20> MacPorts <http://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X