Hello, last week on the comp.lang.fortran newsgroup, someone asked about graphical libraries that can be used from Fortran programs. My suggestion for PLplot led to the following answer from Clive Page:
------ Thanks, Arjen. I'm sure it's easy when you know how, but I find the documentation more than a little confusing, so I don't know how. Indeed after some attempts in the past, I have just given up, and continued with PGPLOT (which is also a brute to build, but at least I know how to overcome its foibles) or DISLIN, which comes with pre-built libraries and is very simple to install and use on both Windows and Linux. For a start the plplot source code seems to come only in a gzipped tar file. Now I know perfectly well how to deal with them on Unix or Linux, but haven't the faintest idea on Windows. My MinGW system works for me when I use gfortran (and g95) but doesn't seem to support tar or gzip out of the box. Then I looked at this page: http://www.miscdebris.net/plplot_wiki/index.php?title=Configure_PLplot_for_MinGW/CLI which mentions the wxWidgets driver. Does one need this for plplot - I've no idea and can find no explanation of what it does. Maybe only for on-screen graphics - but that's a highly desirable feature of a graphics package. Then there is some cryptic stuff about not using the MSYS command window. I vaguely remember having to set up and use an MSYS window on another Windows system long ago, but haven't any idea why I had to do that, and it was painful enough I don't want to repeat the experience. There are also many mentions of Win32 - will this all work on a 64-bit version of Windows? Again I have no idea, can only guess. I like to suggest that if the enthusiasts for plplot want to make it the graphics package of choice for Fortran users on Windows then they should create a pre-built library that one can simply download. Having to build the package from source is a serious obstacle to adoption. Or - and this is very much a second best - provide really simple and comprehensive instructions of all the steps the ordinary Windows user needs to perform to download, unzip, untar, build, and install the PLPLOT library. Including all the tricky bits like getting the environment variables and PATH set up right. ------ We have discussed the possibility of binary distributions in the past, but there never was an opportunity as far as I remember to really do something about it. CMake does come with CPack and that might just be the vehicle we could use for this. I think it will fit in smoothly with Alan's work on building the external libraries from within the PLplot build system. Of course there are many problems to tackle, besides the technical ones: - What kind of builds would we provide? If only: single or double precision, what drivers, what languages, etc. - How to distribute the packaged versions? Just put them next to the tarballs with the sources? Who is going to make them? I would like to examine the questions Clive raised - just a minimal package so that he can experiment with PLplot and we with the question of packaging. Would this indeed be useful or is it a bad idea from the very start? Mind you: I do not intend to offer packages for all the configuration options PLplot supports. Merely a practical subset so that people can easily get started. Regards, Arjen DISCLAIMER: This message is intended exclusively for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender immediately and destroy this message. Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. The foundation 'Stichting Deltares', which has its seat at Delft, The Netherlands, Commercial Registration Number 41146461, is not liable in any way whatsoever for consequences and/or damages resulting from the improper, incomplete and untimely dispatch, receipt and/or content of this e-mail. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
