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Basic GNUPLOT

In many ways, Gnuplot is similar to Mapmaker/EXPin that it is an interactive, command driven program. Once Gnuplot has been started, the user can type ``help'' to get information on how to use the program. There are commands to change the terminal type, load files and specify the output device. Thus, one can view or print the images created by Gnuplot.

If you have run Gnuplot, you should have a plot control file with a ``.plt'' extension. Suppose that this file was stem.plt. You can start up Gnuplot and issue the command

gnuplot> load "stem.plt"
to see the plot specified by stem.plt.

See the Gnuplot manual for more information on this program [Williams and KelleyWilliams and Kelley1993]. Of special interest may be the different types of printers supported by Gnuplot. If you choose ``postscript'' as your terminal type in Preplot, then you will find a pair of lines on the stem.plt file that look like this:

set term postscript
set output "stem.ps"
You can change the token ``postscript'' token in that file to any printer that Gnuplot supports and sent the stem.ps file to that printer.
next up previous contents index
Next: Tutorial Examples Up: GNUPLOT Previous: GNUPLOT   Contents   Index
Christopher Basten 2002-03-27