Hi Mario,
On Mon, 2006-09-18 at 23:41 +0200, Mario Rodriguez wrote:
> A long term (or not so long) solution is to design a complete graphics
> language in Maxima, which should be independent of the plotting
> program.
I agree with you. We need to decide on a general syntax. That's why
I tried to get some consensus before embarking in new changes to
openmath. Otherwise it would introduce more confusion than we already
have.
Look for instance at the problem of making a simple plot with 3 points
joined by segments. To do that one can use plot2d (with the discrete
option) or openplot_curves. To make the syntax easier and
less dependent on the underlying graphics program, both you and I have
come up with our own solutions (for gnuplot and openmath):
(%i1) load(descriptive)$
(%i2) dataplot(apply(matrix,[[-1,2],[3,7],[5,3]]), joined=true,
axisname=["x","y"])$
(%i3) load(graph2d)$
(%i4) graph2d([[-1,2],[3,7],[5,3]], [nolines,0], [xaxislabel,"x"],
[yaxislabel,"y"])$
we should agree on a common syntax and make a single program that
will produce either gnuplot or openmath with similar appearance.
You can see a summary of what was discussed recently about graphics
syntax in
http://maxima.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/New%20Version%20of%
20Openmath
Jaime