GNUPLOT VERSION 4.2.4 =================================== Version 4.2.4 is an incremental update to the current official base release gnuplot version 4.2. A synopsis of changes since the previous release is given below and in the NEWS file. Full information is given in the ChangeLog. New features, changes and fixes in gnuplot version 4.2.4 =========================================================== * NEW add support for enhanced text mode in the emf terminal driver * NEW builtin functions 'strftime' and 'strptime' * NEW set absolute plot margins in screen coordinates * NEW "nocontours" keyword for splot * NEW "undefine foo" clears previously defined user variable foo * NEW allow contouring of pm3d surfaces * NEW allow color by z value ("palette z") in 2D plots * NEW "pause mouse close" waits until the plot window is closed * FIX Do not re-quantize time tics interval explicitly set by user * FIX (gd post) don't segfault on very long font names * FIX allow variable color from input file for "with boxes", "with vectors" * FIX don't run off the end of "set format" commands * FIX Fix discontinuity in piecewise approximation of inverse error function * FIX discard out of range vectors in the bitmap terminals (pbm, epson, etc) * FIX 2nd colour in the colour box for negative palette in postscript * FIX insure palette is initialized before any objects are drawn * FIX wxt terminal was not obeying "set palette maxcolors" * FIX Histograms did not correctly honor 'set style user increment' * FIX Avoid segfault if tic labels are requested from a non-existent data column * FIX emf terminal - allow fractional linewidth (fixes 0-length dash problem) * FIX post terminal - fix parsing error for palfuncparam * FIX post terminal - escape {} chars in enhanced text mode * FIX clip "splot with labels" against plot boundaries in 2D mode * CHANGE try harder to autotitle columns in using specs with expressions * CHANGE gd.trm: use dynamically-allocated TTF font names * CHANGE x11: more finely sampled color palette for PM3D * CHANGE cgm: switch to using web_color_rgbs; approximate RGB colors * CHANGE fig: more point types, 4.2-style font and size syntax for "set term" * CHANGE emf: separate dashlength option (don't use linewidth for dashlength) * CHANGE stacked histograms grow upward for values > 0, downward for values < 0 * CHANGE 'pause mouse button1' (or button2) does not disable zooming * CHANGE built-in readline now tries to recognize and keys Demo plots illustrating these and other features are online at http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_4.2/ You can download a source tarball for gnuplot version 4.2.4 from the gnuplot development site on SourceForge. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2055 Installation ------------ 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-4.2.4 ; ./configure ; make test it: make check install it: make install Known issues ------------ - Internationalization and locale support is incomplete in this version. If you encounter problems with character encodings, numerical formats, or other locale issues, try the CVS version on SourceForge. - Octave has recently changed its method of sending data to gnuplot for plotting; data is passed in-line through the pipe to gnuplot's stdin. Unfortunately, the current Gnuplot 4.2 code does not support mouse interaction with in-line data. This problem is fixed in the CVS version, but not in the current release version 4.2.4. 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 active gnuplot discussion forum on usenet group comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot Development ----------- Gnuplot development is quite active. The development branch (4.3) on SourceForge contains preliminary implementations of many new features. This branch will eventually be released either as version 4.4 or 5.0. Feedback and contributions of code are very welcome.