Re: fltk printing

[Ben Abbott]

On Jul 24, 2010, at 11:56 AM, Ben Abbott wrote:

> On Jul 24, 2010, at 12:29 AM, Shai Ayal wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 12:50 AM, Ben Abbott <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> On Jul 20, 2010, at 2:00 PM, Michael D Godfrey wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Shai,
>>>> 
>>>> I just noticed something that I thought I should ask
>>>> about before doing more:
>>>> 
>>>> First, I noticed that when the fltk backend is active,
>>>> since the latest reorganizing of print.m and __gnuplot__print,
>>>> etc. fltk only does eps output.  But, I happened to be
>>>> doing some plotting in a directory which had a copy of
>>>> the old print.m it.  Using the old print.m and fltk backend
>>>> I could generate pdf without problems.
>>>> 
>>>> I looked at the code and there is quite a lot in
>>>> __gnuplot__print__.m  that is not gnuplot specific. In
>>>> particular the use of ghostscript to do things like pdf,
>>>> and all the other conversions not handled by gnuplot.
>>>> 
>>>> So, rather than duplicate code in __fltk__print__.m
>>>> it appears that  something like a __ghostscript__.m
>>>> script is called for.  Both __gnuplot__print__.m and
>>>> __fltk__print__.m would use that for all the output types
>>>> handled by ghostscript.
>>>> 
>>>> So, does this sound like the right thing to do?
>>>> 
>>>> Michael
>>> 
>>> Michael,
>>> 
>>> I'm working on adding the tex / pstex / epslatex / epslatexstandalone 
>>> terminals to __fltk_print__. I hope to be able to propose a changeset in 
>>> the next few days.  Have you made any local changes to __fltk_print__ yet?
>>> 
>>> If not, shall I email you a preliminary version of what I have to make 
>>> integrating our efforts easier? ... or if you have, perhaps you can send me 
>>> a copy of what you have?
>>> 
>> I also have made no uncommitted changes
>> 
>> Shai
> 
> Ok. I start by committing some new functions.
> 
>       scripts/plot/__ghostscript_binary__.m : returns the name of the gs 
> binary.
>       scripts/plot/__get_eps_bbox__.m : extract the eps-file's bbox.
>       scripts/plot/__fix_eps_bbox__.m : replace bbox with a tight version.
>       scripts/plot/psfrag.m : uses psfrag to substitute latex text into eps 
> files.
> 
> I'll leave __ghostscript__.m to Michael.
> 
> I'm considering a new approach to the print options. They are in a bit of a 
> mess presently. I'll make a proposal once I have something functioning and 
> tested. Essentially, I'm planning to have the options apply more uniformly to 
> all device types.
> 
> I don't plan to modify __gnuplot_print__, until after an acceptable solution 
> for __fltk_print__ is finished.  At that point, the gnuplot version can be 
> modified to behave in consistent manner. Presently, I don't expect this will 
> limit printing for the gnuplot backend.
> 
> Ben

After browsing the gl2ps docs, I noticed that it supports the equivalent of 
epslatex.

Perhaps it is best if we use their implementation. I'll drop that for now and 
focus on __ghostscript_binary__ and __fix_eps_bbox__.

Ben