[lug] Getting frustrated with gnuplot

[Richard Hollos]

> 
> I don't have either of those on my computers [Matlab or Mathematica] or I
> would probably just use Matlab.  Plus, once I leave school they're #@#$!
> expensive considering what little I would use them for personally.
>
 
Maxima, http://maxima.sourceforge.net/ , is a GPL computer algebra system
which is well worth learning as an alternative to Mathematica and it won't cost
you anything to continue using it after you leave school. Having been
developed in the 60's, it is very mature, and some of its notation was even
copied by Mathematica.

Maxima uses gnuplot by default, but you can tell it to use other plotting
utilities. In your case you probably just want to use gnuplot directly to cut
down on interface problems. My experience is that gnuplot can do just about
anything that you want it to, but it might take awhile to figure out how to do
it. One gnuplot resource that I have found to be useful is
http://t16web.lanl.gov/Kawano/gnuplot/index-e.html

Richard Hollos