Re: graphics future

[Daniel J Sebald]

John W. Eaton wrote:


> Also, I simply don't have the cycles to be the maintainer of the
> graphics code.  I took my best shot at the property database code for
> 2.9.10.  If people think that is a reasonable design and someone would
> like to maintain and extend it, then OK.  If not, then let's agree on
> something else that is maintainable, extensible, and (perhaps most
> importantly) compatible.

I thought it was fairly good.  The hardest part seems to have been 
__go_plot_axes__ and that looks fairly straightforward.  Speed seems an issue, 
but I too wonder if something happened between 2.9.5 and 2.9.6...  Isn't this 
sort of near what has been proposed for quite a while, i.e., some routine that 
can be swapped in and out based upon the type of plotting platform that is 
desired?  I could add little bits to the gnuplot version of __go_plot_axes__ 
when needed, but I can't be a full time developer.

There could be a main __go_plot_axes__ which may be internal, then several 
custom ones that could be swapped in using a link or whatnot.  They could be 
part of octave-forge if not CVS.

It has to work on all platforms?  Amenable to primitive manipulation of elements 
on its plot?  Output in a variety of formats including PNG/JPG/EPS/PS/combined 
PS-LaTeX?  GUI objects?  That's a lot of work no matter what route one goes; 
probably full-time for two or three people for a year maybe.  Graphics is fun in 
some ways, but not the livelihood of most list listeners.


> Also, at this point, I think gnuplot as a graphics rendering backend
> is a dead end.  I just don't think that gnuplot works well as a
> low-level plotter, and it is a lot of work to translate the property
> data into gnuplot commands and make it all (sort of) work out in a
> compatible way.  In addition, I don't see much hope for being able to
> insert programmable GUI objects in a gnuplot graphics window and have
> the kind of two-way communication with Octave that is necessary to
> handle graphics and GUI features.

Gnuplot can return mouse coordinates upon clicking, but that is about it.

Dan