gnuplot-mode, version 0.7

This directory contains files for running Gnuplot from within emacs. This package was assembled by Bruce Ravel <[email protected]>. See the homepage at http://xafs.org/BruceRavel/GnuplotMode

Contents

File	Description
README.org	this file
INSTALL.org	thorough installation instructions
gnuplot.el	gnuplot mode for emacs
gnuplot-gui.el	a GUI for setting command arguments interactively
gnuplot-context.el	context-sensitive completion and help lookup
gnuplot.info	info version of gnuplot 4.6 help
gpelcard.tex	quick reference card for gnuplot mode (latex)

Installation

Installing from MELPA

In recent versions of Emacs, gnuplot-mode can be installed directly from the MELPA package repository as the gnuplot package (note: not gnuplot-mode, which is an alternative gnuplot package).

After configuring Emacs to use MELPA, you should be able to install gnuplot-mode by typing

M-x install-package RET gnuplot RET

Or do M-x list-packages and search for “gnuplot” in the list.

Installing using el-get

El-get includes a gnuplot-mode recipe. So to install simply call,

M-x el-get-install RET gnuplot-mode

Alternatively, you can place the following in your init file so that el-get can install and load gnuplot-mode at Emacs start up.

(el-get 'sync 'gnuplot-mode)

Installing from cloned repository or .tar.gz

See the file INSTALL.org for details.

New features for gnuplot-mode 0.7

Version 0.7 of gnuplot-mode is designed for use with gnuplot version 4.4 and up. It will also mostly work fine with older versions. If it doesn’t work with newer versions, report a bug.

This version has mostly been tested under GNU Emacs 23 and 24. It should also work on GNU Emacs 22 and XEmacs 21. It may work with earlier versions, but it has not been tested.

New syntax for gnuplot version 4

This version of gnuplot-mode supports the new curly-brace-block do and if statements introduced in recent versions of gnuplot. The indentation code to handle these is pretty simple, but should work. Please report any bugs. The number of columns to offset inner blocks is controlled by the gnuplot-basic-offset variable.

Context-sensitive keyword completion

By default gnuplot-mode will try to parse your commands as you type and suggest only relevant completion candidates on typing M-TAB or TAB. For example, with point after the with of a plot command, tab completion will suggest only plotting styles. This also enables more specific help topic lookup in the gnuplot info file, provided you have the right version of gnuplot.info installed.

If the context-sensitivity annoys you, you can get simple non-context-sensitive completion back by toggling gnuplot-context-sensitive-mode. See also the variable gnuplot-tab-completion.

By its nature, the completion code has to know a fair bit about the structure of the gnuplot language. If you use it with an old version of gnuplot (pre version 4) it will make mistakes. Most of gnuplot 4.6’s command language is parsed correctly except for the set terminal commands.

Eldoc mode

If you install the file gnuplot-eldoc.el from a recent Gnuplot distribution, gnuplot-mode can show syntax hints in the modeline when eldoc-mode is turned on and context sensitivity is enabled.

Inline images

You can optionally have plots displayed inline in the Gnuplot comint process buffer. This is handy for trying things out without having to switch between Emacs and the Gnuplot display. Call gnuplot-inline-imge-mode or type C-c M-i in a gnuplot-mode buffer to try it out. This feature is implemented using temporary .png files, and is also somewhat experimental. It requires Gnuplot to have png support and a GNU Emacs with image support. Please report bugs.

NOTES

1. The gnuplot-mode distribution comes with the version of the gnuplot info file that gets made by gnuplot 4.6. Use it rather than the old one. If you really must use the older info file, see the document string for the variable `gnuplot-info-hook’. If you already have the info file installed on your computer, you will not need the one that comes with gnuplot-mode.
2. The interactive graphical graphical interface to setting command arguments contained in gnuplot-gui.el is experimental. It is incomplete and may make mistakes. Hopefully, you will find it useful. It requires that you are using a version of emacs with the widget library installed or that you have installed it yourself. Version numbers in the 20’s of Emacs and XEmacs ship with the widget library.
3. Gnuplot’s pause -1 command, which waits for the user to press a key, is problematic when running under Emacs. Sending pause -1 to the running gnuplot process will make Emacs appear to freeze. (It isn’t really crashed: typing C-g will unlock it and let you continue). The workaround for now is to make Gnuplot output a string before pausing, by doing

   pause -1 "Hit return"
       

   or similar. Thanks to Jim Mehl for reporting this issue.

The todo list

1. Use ELPA

   Gnuplot-mode is already on http://melpa.milkbox.net, but it would be good to get it into the other repositories too.

2. Using gnuplot-mode on windows is problematic. John Handy says:

   You probably get nagged quite a bit about this. Some have been running into issues with gnuplot-mode and Windows and I’m wondering if you have any comments. I use it just fine on Linux, but it seems that Windows users are not able to send data to gnuplot successfully.

   Org-mode also uses gnuplot-mode and this org-plot and org-mode babel+gnuplot are not working correctly on Windows.

   Any thoughts? I’m hoping to include any results in the Org-mode wiki for gnuplot use: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages/ob-doc-gnuplot.php

   If you’re interested, here are some of the threads I’m referring to: http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Comp/comp.emacs/2007-07/msg00159.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg14544.html http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.emacs.help/browse_thread/thread/53489131c79f62b3

   If you’d like to see my summary of the issues to the org-mode mailing list, it’s here: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/30235