Book Image

gnuplot Cookbook

By : Lee Phillips
Book Image

gnuplot Cookbook

By: Lee Phillips

Overview of this book

gnuplot is the world's finest technical plotting software, used by scientists, engineers, and others for many years. It is in constant development and runs on practically every operating system, and can produce output in almost any format. The quality of its 3d plots is unmatched and its ability to be incorporated into computer programs and document preparation systems is excellent. gnuplot Cookbook ñ it will help you master gnuplot. Start using gnuplot immediately to solve your problems in data analysis and presentation. Quickly find a visual example of the graph you want to make and see a complete, working script for producing it. Learn how to use the new features in gnuplot 4.4. Find clearly explained, working examples of using gnuplot with LaTeX and with your own computer programming language. You will master all the ins and outs of gnuplot through gnuplot Cookbook. You will learn to plot basic 2d to complex 3d plots, annotate from simple labels to equations, integrate from simple scripts to full documents and computer progams. You will be taught to annotate graphs with equations and symbols that match the style of the rest of your text, thus creating a seamless, professional document. You will be guided to create a web page with an interactive graph, and add graphical output to your simulation or numerical analysis program. Start using all of gnuplot's simple to complex features to suit your needs, without studying its 200 page manual through this Cookbook.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
gnuplot Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Finding Help and Information
Index

Using the Java gnuplot GUI JGP


In this recipe, we learn how to get started with the JGP program, which provides a basic but serviceable GUI front end to gnuplot.

Getting ready

JGP does not come with a normal gnuplot installation. You need to go to its home page at http://jgp.sourceforge.net/ and download the source code and Java binaries (JGP is an open source project, distributed under the GPL license, and authored by Maximilian Fabricius). You can compile it yourself or simply run the supplied binaries. The current version of the software works only with the Linux operating system. I encountered no difficulties running version 0.1.2 pre alpha of the software, using the Java binaries as supplied in the download. You should have Java version 5.0 installed, and in order for JGP to find gnuplot, it must be on your path.

Tip

Where is gnuplot?

To use GUI front ends, gnuplot must be on your path. For example, if you have been typing /usr/local/bin/gnuplot, you must now add this to your path with ...