New plotting documentation



I have updated the plotting documentation. All of the changes are
contained in the description of PLOT_OPTIONS, which is now quite long. I
rewrote the entire description, including portions involving old
options. I think the result is much more coherent than the old version. 

It would be useful to have someone else read through what I wrote to see
if the documentation makes sense to someone other than the author.

--Jim

|abacus3>./maxima-local -l cmucl
Maxima 5.9.0.9beta1 http://maxima.sourceforge.net
Using Lisp CMU Common Lisp 18e fedora release 0.fdr.2.e.1
Distributed under the GNU Public License. See the file COPYING.
Dedicated to the memory of William Schelter.
This is a development version of Maxima. The function bug_report()
provides bug reporting information.
(%i1) ? plot_options


Info from file /home/amundson/notwork/maxima/doc/info/maxima.info:
 - Variable: PLOT_OPTIONS
     Members of this list indicate defaults for plotting.  They may be
     altered using SET_PLOT_OPTION

     PLOT_FORMAT determines which plotting package will be used. The
     supported values for PLOT_FORMAT are:
          [PLOT_FORMAT, GNUPLOT]
     Gnuplot is the default, and most advanced, plotting package. It
     requires an external gnuplot installation.

          [PLOT_FORMAT, MGNUPLOT]
     Mgnuplot is a Tk-based wrapper around gnuplot. It is included in
     the Maxima distribution. Mgnuplot offers a rudimentary GUI for
     gnuplot, but has fewer overall features than the plain gnuplot
     interface. Mgnuplot requires an external gnuplot installation and
     TCL/Tk.

          [PLOT_FORMAT, OPENMATH]
     Openmath is a TCL/Tk GUI plotting program. It is included in the
     Maxima distribution.

          [PLOT_FORMAT, PS]
     The PS plot format generates simple postcript files directly from
     Maxima. Much more advanced postscript output is available using the
     gnuplot plot format and gnuplot_term set to ps.

     RUN_VIEWER controls whether or not the appropriate viewer for the
     plot format should be run.
          [RUN_VIEWER, FALSE]
     The default value for RUN_VIEWER is TRUE.

     GNUPLOT_TERM is specific to the gnuplot plot format. It sets the
     output terminal type for gnuplot
          [GNUPLOT_TERM, DEFAULT]
     The default gnuplot terminal is a separate graphical window.

          [GNUPLOT_TERM, DUMB]
     The dumb terminal produces an ASCII art approximation to graphics.

          [GNUPLOT_TERM, PS]
     The ps terminal produces postscript. Use it in conjunction with
     GNUPLOT_OUT_FILE in order to write postscript to a file instead of
     the screen.

     GNUPLOT_OUT_FILE is specific to the gnuplot plot format. It sends
     gnuplot output to a file.
          [GNUPLOT_OUT_FILE, "myplot.ps"]
     This example sends postscript output to the file "myplot.ps" when
     used in conjunction with the postscript gnuplot terminal.

     X and Y are the default horizontal and vertical ranges,
     respectively.
          [X, - 3, 3]
          [Y, - 3, 3]
     Sets the horizontal and vertical ranges to [-3,3].

     T is the default range for the parameter in parametric plots.
          [T, 0, 10]
     Sets the parametric variable range to [0, 10].

     NTICKS and ADAPT_DEPTH control the initial number of points and the
     maximum number of splittings used by the adaptive plotting routine.
          [NTICKS 20]
          [ADAPT_DEPTH 5]
     The default for both NTICKS and ADAPT_DEPTH is 10.

     GRID sets the number of grid points to use in the x- and
     y-directions for three-dimensional plotting.
          [GRID, 50, 50]
     sets the grid to 50 by 50 points. The default grid is 30 by 30.

     TRANSFORM_XY allows transformations to be applied to
     three-dimensional plots.
          [TRANSFORM_XY, FALSE]
     The default TRANSFORM_XY is FALSE. If it is not FALSE, it should be
     the output of
          make_transform([x,y,z], [f1(x,y,z),f2(x,y,z),f3(x,y,z)])
     The POLAR_XY transformation is built in. It gives the same
     transformation as
          make_transform([r,th,z],[r*cos(th),r*sin(th),z])

     COLOUR_Z is specific to the PS plot format.
          [COLOUR_Z, TRUE]
     The default value for COLOUR_Z is FALSE.

     VIEW_DIRECTION is specific to the PS plot format.
          [VIEW_DIRECTION, 1, 1, 1]
     The default VIEW_DIRECTION is [1,1,1].

     GNUPLOT_PM3D, GNUPLOT_PREAMBLE, GNUPLOT_CURVE_TITLES,
     GNUPLOT_CURVE_STYLES, GNUPLOT_DEFAULT_TERM_COMMAND,
     GNUPLOT_DUMB_TERM_COMMAND and GNUPLOT_PS_TERM_COMMAND are advanced
     gnuplot options. All of these options (except GNUPLOT_PM3D) take
     raw gnuplot commands. Refer to the gnuplot documentation for more
     details.

          [GNUPLOT_PM3D, TRUE]
     GNUPLOT_PM3D controls the usage PM3D mode, which has advanced 3D
     features. PM3D is only available in gnuplot versions after 3.7. The
     default value for GNUPLOT_PM3D is FALSE.

          [GNUPLOT_PREAMBLE, "set log y"]
     GNUPLOT_PREAMBLE inserts gnuplot commands before the plot is
     drawn. Any valid gnuplot commands may be used. Multiple commands
     should be separated with a semi-colon. The example shown produces a
     log scale plot. The default value for GNUPLOT_PREAMBLE is "".

          [GNUPLOT_CURVE_TITLES, ["my first function","my second
function"]]
     GNUPLOT_CURVE_TITLES controls the titles given in the plot key. The
     default value is DEFAULT, which automatically sets the title of
     each curve to the function plotted. If not DEFAULT,
     GNUPLOT_CURVE_TITLES should contain a list of strings. (To disable
     the plot key entirely, add "set nokey" to GNUPLOT_PREAMBLE.)

          [GNUPLOT_CURVE_STYLES, ["with lines 7", "with lines 2"]]
     GNUPLOT_CURVE_STYLES is a list of strings controlling the
     appearance of curves, i.e., color, width, dashing, etc., to be
     sent to the gnuplot plot command. The default value is ["with
     lines 3", "with lines 1", "with lines 2", "with lines 5", "with
     lines 4", "with lines 6", "with lines 7"], which cycles through
     different colors. See the gnuplot documentation for "plot" for
     more information.

          [GNUPLOT_DEFAULT_TERM_COMMAND, "set term x11"]
     GNUPLOT_DEFAULT_TERM_COMMAND is the gnuplot command to set the
     terminal type for the default terminal. The default value is "",
     i.e., use gnuplot's default.

          [GNUPLOT_DUMB_TERM_COMMAND, "set term dumb 132 50"]
     GNUPLOT_DUMB_TERM_COMMAND is the gnuplot command to set the
     terminal type for the dumb terminal. The default value is "set term
     dumb 79 22", which makes the text output 79 characters by 22
     characters.

          [GNUPLOT_PS_TERM_COMMAND, "set term postscript eps enhanced
color solid 18"]
     GNUPLOT_PS_TERM_COMMAND is the gnuplot command to set the terminal
     type for the postscript terminal. The default value is "set size
     1.5, 1.5;set term postscript eps enhanced color solid 24", which
     sets the size to 1.5 times gnuplot's default, and the font size to
     24, among other things. See the gnuplot documentation for "set term
     postscript" for more information.

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