[MacPorts] #43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0

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Sat May 17 05:25:57 PDT 2014 

#43738: gnuplot: upgrade to 5.0
----------------------+----------------------
  Reporter:  mojca@…  |      Owner:  mojca@…
      Type:  update   |     Status:  new
  Priority:  Normal   |  Milestone:
 Component:  ports    |    Version:
Resolution:           |   Keywords:  haspatch
      Port:  gnuplot  |
----------------------+----------------------

Comment (by mojca@…):

 {{{
                 GNUPLOT VERSION 5.0.rc1 RELEASE NOTES
                 =====================================

 We are happy to announce a release candidate for gnuplot version 5.
 Version 5 will be a major release with significant new capabilities
 and enhancements compared to previous gnuplot versions.

 MAJOR NEW FEATURES
 ==================

 * The dot/dash pattern of a line can now be controlled independently
   from other properties using the keyword "dashtype".

 * Text markup now supports bold and italic font settings in addition to
   the subscript, superscript, font size and other options previously
   provided by the "enhanced text" mode.  This mode is now the default.

 * Command scripts may place in-line data in a named data block for
   repeated plotting.

 * RGB colors can include an alpha-channel for transparency.
   E.g. SEETHRUBLU = (0xDD << 24) + (0x0 << 16) + (0x0 << 8) + (0xFF)
        set linetype N linecolor rgb SEETHRUBLU

 * Bit shift operators << and >> (used in above example)

 * Secondary axes (x2, y2) can be locked to the primary axis via a mapping
   function.  In the simplest case this guarantees that the primary and
   secondary axis ranges are identical.  In the general case it allows you
   to define a non-linear axis, something that previously was only possible
   for the special case of log scaling.

 * The "import" command attaches a user-defined function name to a
   function provided by an extenal shared object (i.e. a plugin).

 * Previous commands in the history list of an interactive session can be
   reexecuted by number.  For example "history !5" will reexecute the
   command numbered 5 in the list reported by "history".

 * New plot styles "with parallelaxes", labeled contours.

 * New coordinate system (Degrees, Minutes, Seconds) "set xdata
 geographic".

 * Hypertext labels in the interactive terminals including web display
   using the HTML canvas or svg terminals.

 Many other additions are described in the "New Features" section of the
 documentation.


 CHANGES
 =======

 Gnuplot development assigns very high priority to backward compatibility
 with earlier versions.  For example any command script that worked in
 version 4.0 is expected to continue to work for all version 4 releases
 including the most recent one (4.6.5).  However changes introduced in
 version 5 can affect the operation of some version 4 scripts.

 A brief summary of potentially incompatible changes is given here.

 * Earlier versions of gnuplot used the keyword "linetype" to mean both
   the color and the solid/dot/dash pattern of a line.  Version 5 has
   separate keywords "linecolor" and "dashtype".  You can assign any
   desired color and a dash pattern to any linetype.  The program now
   uses a default set of 8 linetypes, all solid.  You can change these
   or add new linetypes as you please, or include the desired color or
   dash pattern directly in a plot command.  You do not need to change
   the current terminal or terminal mode in order to used dashed lines.

 * The handling of input data containing NaN, Inf, inconsistent number of
   data columns, or other unexpected content has changed. See documentation
   under "missing" for examples and figures.

 * Time coordinates are stored internally as the number of seconds relative
   to the standard unix epoch 1-Jan-1970.  Earlier versions of gnuplot used
   a different epoch internally (1-Jan-2000). This change resolves
   inconsistencies introduced when time in seconds was generated
 externally.
   The epoch convention used by a particular gnuplot installation can be
   determined using the command `print strftime("%F",0)`.
   Time is now stored to at least millisecond precision.

 * The "reverse" keyword (e.g. "set xrange [*:*] reverse") now affects only
   autoscaling.  It has no effect on explicit ranges.
   "set xrange [0:1] reverse" is _not_ the same as "set xrange [1:0]".

 * Options to the "fit" command are now given by "set fit ..." rather than
   by setting environmental variables.  Fit can handle up to MAX_NUM_VAR
   independent variables (currently 12).  Variables other than the first
   two (x, y) have been dissociated from axis names.
   E.g. "set urange [U1:U2]" has no effect on fitting.  Use the command
   "set dummy ..." to assign names to fit variables 3 ... 12.

 * The function `timecolumn(N,"timeformat")` now has 2 parameters.
   Because the required second parameter is not associated with a
 particular
   data axis, this allows using the `timecolumn` function to read time data
   for reasons other than specifying the x or y coordinate.

 * The `call` command is implemented by providing a set of variables ARGC,
   ARG0, ..., ARG9. ARG0 holds the name of the script file being executed.
   ARG1 to ARG9 are string variables and thus may either be referenced
 directly
   or expanded as macros, e.g. @ARG1.  The older convention for referencing
   call parameters as tokens $0 ... $9 is deprecated.

 * "unset xrange" (and other axis ranges) restores the default range.

 * "unset terminal" restores the original terminal of the current session.



                  NOTES TO PACKAGERS AND TESTERS
                 ===============================

 Configuration options for interactive use
 -----------------------------------------

 The 5.0 source code supports three primary cross-platform output modes
 in addition to several platform-specific modes.

 1) Qt
    The qt terminal supports interactive display with menu-driven
    output to png, svg or pdf.  The final 5.0 release may also support
    scripted output to these same file formats but this is not present
    in rc1.  If either Qt4 or Qt5 is detected by the configure script,
    this will be the default terminal.  It is now the fastest and most
    full-featured interactive terminal option.
    To disable this terminal:
       ./configure --without-qt
    To force use of Qt4 even if Qt5 is present:
       ./configure --with-qt=qt4

 2) Cairo/pango/wxWidgets
    This set of terminals includes
    - pngcairo, pdfcairo, epscairo, and cairolatex for output to a file
    - wxt for interactive display
    All of these will be built by default if the configuration script finds
    the required libcairo, libpango, libcairo, libwxgtk, and related
    support libraries
    To disable these terminals:
        ./configure --without-cairo
        ./configure --with-cairo --disable-wxt

 3) X11 (the "classic" interactive interface)
    This used to be the preferred interactive interface, but the newer
    wxt and qt terminals offer nicer output and a wider range of features.


 Options for output to files
 ---------------------------

 Of course the terminals (output modes) present in previous gnuplot
 versions
 are also still available. These include, among many more obscure options:
 - png/jpeg/gif output via libgd
 - PostScript
 - Many flavors of TeX/LaTeX output, including TikZ and ConTeXt
 - Bitmapped output to support many older devices (e.g. HP deskjet, epson,
   seiko printers, pbm bitmapped graphics files) is available if needed
   but is no longer configured in by default.
       ./configure --with-bitmap-terminals

 Options for generating interactive plots for web display
 --------------------------------------------------------

 - Mouseable output for display on the web can be created using either
   the canvas terminal (HTML5 2D canvas element) or the svg terminal.
   Both allow zooming, toggling plot elements on/off, and user-scriptable
   hot keys.

 Online demo plots
 -----------------

 Demo plots illustrating new and old features are online at

         http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_5.0/


                           OTHER NOTES
                 ===============================

 Installation
 ------------

 You can download a source tarball for gnuplot version 5.0.rc1 from the
 gnuplot development site on SourceForge.

         http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2055

 Installation instructions are available in the source itself; the short
 version for linux/unix-like systems is to unpack the tarball and then
 build it:
                 cd gnuplot-5.0.rc1 ; ./configure ; make
 test it:
                 make check
 install it:
                 make install

 Pay careful attention to the output of the ./configure script.
 It may indicate that some output drivers have been omitted because the
 necessary support libraries were not found.  In general you need to have
 previously installed the "*-devel-*" versions of these libraries.


 Known issues
 ------------

 - Mac OSX ships with a terminal input library that appears to be GNU
 libreadline, but isn't really.  The program tries to cope with this, but
 you may get better results by configuring gnuplot to use either its own
 built-in readline routines or the real GNU libreadline.

 - The gnuplot build system is not very good at figuring out where to find
 or install LaTeX-related files.  This can affect use of the new lua/tikz
 and ConTeXt terminals.

 - You can configure support for both wxt and qt into the same gnuplot
 executable, but only one of these two output modes can be used in any
 given gnuplot session.


 Support
 -------
 Please report all bugs and installation problems to the bug tracker
 on SourceForge:

         http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=2055&atid=102055

 There is also an gnuplot discussion forum on usenet group

         comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot
 }}}

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/43738#comment:1>
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