Re: Graphic support in CVS

["Karim Belabas" <belabas@math.u-bordeaux1.fr>]

* Ilya Zakharevich [2006-01-19 00:29]:
> > Just tried it again on my work machine (out-of-the-box Mandriva-10.1):
> > Term::Gnuplot fails to compile because libgd could not be found and a -lgd
> > linking flag is included
> 
> Sigh.  No, this means that gd library was present (at least in *some*
> form), gd headers were present, but the linking failed...
> 
> > [ /usr/lib/libgd.so.2 exists, but no /usr/lib/libgd.so link, which would
> > require some silly *-dev package to be installed first, I presume. ].
> 
> I can't deduce any trick which would detect such silly a misconfiguration...

Unfortunately, it's now the default setup in most (all?) Linux distros.
I do regret it also, although I can see the original logic for doing so.

> > I fixed the link, and now get
> > * Configure --graphic=builtin.X11-gnuplot-dynamic
> > gives me a working X graphing engine, but only ASCII-based gnuplot
> > terminals are supported (dumb, latex, etc.) The others yield things like
> 
> Are you sure?  You linked in gd, so gd terminals should work too.
> Depending on what you have in your gd, something like this (from the docs)
> 
> ? plotfile("aaa.png")
> %1 = 1
> ? plotterm("png=300,200")
> %2 = 1
> ? ploth(x=-1,20,sin(x^3))

This does work. What I meant was that 
  plotterm("x11")
does not work, so you need the X11 graphic engine in any case.

> > If it could be made as an independant module that may be included without
> > including any complicated hook in the PARI distribution, that would be fine
> > Then the gnuplot interface could be recovered, provided something like
> > 
> >   install Term::Gnuplot
> >   Configure --graphic=gnuplot
> 
> I do not think this worths a lot.  Major point of gnuplot terminals
> was that one does not need to recompile GP/PARI (which is, in my
> experience, a major hassle).

What exact problems do you run into when compiling GP as a standalone
tool ? E.g. Configure && make in current CVS.

> > is enough. I'm releasing 2.2.12-beta (==> hopefully 2.3-stable in one
> > month or so): a simpler, working, gnuplot interface can be added in
> > the 2.4 cycle.
> 
> 2.3?  Do we have all the usability stuff addressed?  E.g., can one
> execute arbitrary GP code from .gprc (or at least a way to load a file
> recognizing "~/foo.gp" notation)?

What's wrong with 

  read "~/foo.gp"

?

Cheers,

    Karim.
-- 
Karim Belabas                  Tel: (+33) (0)5 40 00 26 17
Universite Bordeaux 1          Fax: (+33) (0)5 40 00 69 50
351, cours de la Liberation    http://www.math.u-bordeaux.fr/~belabas/
F-33405 Talence (France)       http://pari.math.u-bordeaux.fr/  [PARI/GP]