Multiple maxima instances and maxout.gnuplot_pipes

Robert Dodier wrote:
> On 4/22/08, Dan Hatton <vi5u0-maxima at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>>  I currently have four instances of Maxima running on different
>>  computers, on all of which I have the same home directory via NFS.
>>
>>  The four are all running batch scripts that involve plot2d commands.
>>  Am I likely to encounter any problems due to them clashing over trying
>>  to write to the same maxout.gnuplot_pipes file, or is there some
>>  automated handling for this situation?
> 
> Maxima doesn't try to avoid file name collisions, though doubtless it should.
> 

I'm not really familiar with how gnuplot_pipes work, but it seems maxima 
  has a pipe open to gnuplot over which we can send commands.  Maybe it 
would be possible to send the data over the pipe as well instead of 
writing the data to maxout.gnuplot_pipes.  Gnuplot supports this via the 
"plot '-'" command.

Then the processes are completely independent, and we don't have to cook 
up random file names.

Ray