I have just checked in the new Maxima-Gnuplot interface. Examples can be
seen on <http://maxima.sourceforge.net/maxgraphtmp>;. (As the url
implies, we'll make the page official later.)
The following notes will be converted into real documentation after I
have received some feedback on the interface.
--
1) Goal: the idea is not to create the ultimate plotting tool for
Maxima. Rather, I have tried to make the maximum functionality available
with the currently available tool (Gnuplot) and minimal effort. Simple
operations should be easy and complex operations should be possible.
2) (New) "gnuplot" is now the default plotting format. The old gnuplot
interface that utilizes the mgnuplot tcl-tk script is available as
"mgnuplot". The old default maxima plotting package is still available
as "openmath".
3) Three gnuplot terminals are available: default, ps and dumb. Each can
either be displayed to the screen or saved to a file.
4) Several new plot_options are available:
a) gnuplot_term = default, ps or dumb. default is default.
b) gnuplot_out_file = false or filename. false is default. Output
files are gnuplot format to be loaded in the gnuplot application for the
default term, encapsulated postscript for the ps term and text for the
dumb term.
c) gnuplot_pm3d = true or false. false is default. Turns on the pm3d
option available in newer versions of Gnuplot.
d) gnuplot_preamble = string. "" is default. The preamble can contain
an arbitrary string of Gnuplot commands. Multiple commands should be
separated with semi-colons.
e) gnuplot_curve_titles = list of (strings or default). [default] is
default. The list of curve titles will be applied to the list of
curves. If there are more curves than titles in the list, the list will
wrap around. The special value default give the curves titles based on
the 1d representation of the function name.
f) gnuplot_curve_styles = list of strings. The styles wrap around in a
manner similar to the titles. The strings themselves should be gnuplot
commands appropriate for
plot "file" with title "title <style>
For details type "help plot" in gnuplot.
g) gnuplot_default_term_command = string. Default is "". The gnuplot
command to set the default terminal.
h) gnuplot_ps_term_command = string. Default is "set size 1.5, 1.5;set
term postscript eps enhanced color solid 24". The gnuplot command to set
the ps terminal.
g) gnuplot_default_term_command = string. Default is "set term dumb 79
22". The gnuplot command to set the dumb terminal.
5) More testing needs to be done, particularly with xmaxima and windows.
Feedback on this interface will be greatly appreciated. This is the last
feature I plan to add before working on the 5.9.1 release.
--Jim