FAQ: gnuplot vs. emacs' compile command

[Dan Jacobson]

The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot as well.

What's the big problem that
$ cat Makefile
gp:
        echo "plot 'file';pause -1"|gnuplot -persist
$ make #works fine
$ emacs -eval '(compile "make")' #doesn't plot anything.
$ emacs -eval '(shell-command "make")'  #works wonderfully
$ emacs -eval '(shell-command "make&")' #doesn't plot anything

Sure you'll tell me to see /usr/share/doc/gnuplot-doc/0FAQ.gz's
"7.10 Calling gnuplot in a pipe or with a gnuplot-script doesn't produce a 
plot!"
but even that fancy perl example doesn't cover my emacs vs. gnuplot
dilemma.

Or you will try to change the subject by offering
http://feff.phys.washington.edu/~ravel/software/gnuplot-mode/
But that doesn't answer my question of how does one run gnuplot from a
Makefile in GNU emacs' compile mode?

Don't tell me that there is no way for this to be overcome.
I will never be able to do it "because the technology Jacobson was
asking for was 5-10 years in the future."  "He was essentially asking
for plugging the standard input to the standard putoff, no simple
algorithm there."

OK, one can indeed do
gp:
        echo -e 1\\n2 > a
        echo "plot 'a';pause $p" > b
        gnuplot b
With p=-1, the compilation never finished even after the window closes.
With p=5 etc, one has to set an arbitrary time limit, however the
compilation will indeed finish.
-persist doesn't help here.
-- 
http://jidanni.org/ Taiwan(04)25854780