[lug] Getting frustrated with gnuplot

[Daniel Webb]

On Fri, Oct 13, 2006 at 05:32:58AM -0600, Steve Sullivan wrote:

> Hi Daniel,
> Here are some other plotting packagess you might try.
> This only a partial list ... have you tried searching sourceforge?
> Also have you tried searching on "scientific visualization"?

Yes, I definitely did some research before posting.  

Evaluating software, at least for me, is extremely difficult and painful.  I
hate doing it.  That's the reason that once I find something that works and
works well (Apache, Exim4, postgresql, ratpoison, vnc, openvpn, firefox,
rsync, ssh, screen are all great examples) I won't even consider evaluating
alternatives unless there's something I really need to do that I can't with my
current tool.  Unfortunately, if a fairly good tool like gnuplot can't do
what I want, I usually find that few of the others can either.  

Out of all the solution below that I looked at (I haven't evaluated them all),
the ones that could do what I wanted (contour plots with levels and 3D bar
plots) appeared to have a steep learning curve.

Right now my solution will probably be either use the gnuplot hack for contour
labels or go somewhere and use Matlab for this one problem and go back to
gnuplot for everything else.  I have not seen even one superior quality plot
package that is free as in speech.  Gnuplot isn't Free, but it's gratis and
for the things it can do it does very well.  Plenty of figures in science
journals seem to be created with it anyhow.