It seems a bit heavyweight, but has anyone considered using R for
plotting from maxima?
I agree with the comments in the archives about how gnuplot has a poor
interface and yet is sort of "the least evil" option, at least if you
talk about plotting-only programs.
however, it occurred to me that leveraging the R language and the R
user community (large and active!) as at least one option for plotting
would be fantastic. They have done a very nice job of producing
graphical routines for R, and the lattice/grid system allows you to
write your own plotting routines with all sorts of customizations
rather easily. Talking to R by dumping data files and sending commands
down a pipe to the interpreter is certainly not less klugey than doing
the same for gnuplot, but R is actively being developed and would be a
fantastic coupling.
http://www.r-project.org for those who don't know about R.
I have considerable experience with R plotting, and have done a fair
amount of common lisp coding (though not in the last 2 years), so if
someone wants to take me under their wing a little and give me hints
of where to start, I'd be happy to do a proof of concept maxima
package that does 2D plotting.
PS: R produces nice postscript and pdf output as well.
--
Daniel Lakeland
dlakelan@street-artists.org
http://www.street-artists.org/~dlakelan