about the current gnuplot module

[Mojca Miklavec]

Hello,

I just wanted to report a couple of issues about the current gnuplot
module (m-gnuplot.tex):

1. I created a pgnuplot.bat file since I have multiple gnuplot
executables lying around. If gnuplot is called only with "gnuplot
script.plt", it ends OK, but with "START gnuplotscript.plt" an empty
cmd shell remains open after each run.

2. texmfstart newpstopdf fails. I'll investigate.

3. If I make only one PS figure it works OK. When I tried to make two,
I get an error "FATAL: the file is not yet ready" or something
similar. Seems as if TeX would try to include the resulting pdf before
it's finished. If I open the PDF files after that, they are OK and can
be included into another document without any problem.

4. After reporting newline problem, problem with backslash at the end
of the line and percent sign, I thought that this will not approach to
the end so soon ...

I tried to do
set title '"\\tfa A nice function $\\sin(x)$"
it started interacting with TeX commands. So I decided to comment it
out temporary. Percent sign wasn't OK since it was declared
explicitely that it may not disappear, so I tried with a gnuplot
comment, #. I doubt that trying to fix that one step after another
will lead anywhere. While searching for the reasons for misbehaviour I
took a glimse over tex.rb and how mp graphics are dealt with.

I realized that making a ruby code to do the work would probably be
much easier than hacking around in TeX. That way it would also be
possible to do different conversions (run mptopdf for mp terminal,
wrapping LaTeX files, converting postscript files, ...)

Mojca

[Hans Hagen]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> I realized that making a ruby code to do the work would probably be
> much easier than hacking around in TeX. That way it would also be
> possible to do different conversions (run mptopdf for mp terminal,
> wrapping LaTeX files, converting postscript files, ...)
>
>

since we're dealing with graphics, an option is to the the built in
conversion features, i.e. the rlx files (manual on the site); it comes
doen to

- defining a post/preprocessor (can be a ruby script)
- adding an entry to the (default) rlx file

context (rlxtools) will only process files that are changes so its
rather efficient

Hans

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 2/21/06, Hans Hagen wrote:
> since we're dealing with graphics, an option is to the the built in
> conversion features, i.e. the rlx files (manual on the site); it comes
> doen to
>
> - defining a post/preprocessor (can be a ruby script)
> - adding an entry to the (default) rlx file
>
> context (rlxtools) will only process files that are changes so its
> rather efficient

Sounds like a good idea. I don't understand a word in that manual yet
;), but writing ruby code is surely easier than hacking around with
TeX.

Mojca

[Hans Hagen]

it looks more complex than it is, mostly because it's also keeping track of sub-paths and because only changed files are reprocessed (caching and such)

also, for such (new) features: switch to newtexexec

Hans

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