Gnuplot-mode for Emacs

Gnuplot is my utility of choice for quick 'n' dirty plotting chores. I don't love Gnuplot's command line interface but I find mouse-driven, GUI oriented plotting tools to be even slower and more unwieldy to use. My solution is to run Gnuplot from within Emacs or XEmacs where I can edit an entire script then send that script to a running Gnuplot process. Because this is done in Emacs, I have access to a large number of useful tools to help create good scripts.

To this end, I have created an editing mode for Gnuplot. This is inspired by the Gnuplot mode originally written by Gershon Elber and initial versions were written in collaboration with Phil Type. All of the code in the current version is new and shares only some concepts with the original mode by Elber.

Gnuplot mode was last updated on 13 December, 2002. The current version number is 0.6.0.

1. Gnuplot mode has the following features:
2. Functions for plotting lines, regions, entire scripts, or entire files
3. Graphical interface to setting command arguments
4. Syntax colorization using font-lock or hilit19
5. Automated completion of common words in Gnuplot and automatic indentation
6. On-line help using Info for Gnuplot functions and features
7. Interaction with Gnuplot using comint
8. Convenient key bindings and pull down menus plus a toolbar for use with XEmacs
9. Customizable using the custom package
10. Provides several hooks for additional customization
11. Works with Emacs 19.34 and up and XEmacs 20.4 and up. Also works with NTEmacs 20.3 and up.
12. Works with any version of Gnuplot 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7 (and the develpment version, 3.8)
13. Distributed with a quick reference sheet in postscript which describes the features of Gnuplot mode

	This shows gnuplot mode in XEmacs 20.4. Shown on the screen is the Gnuplot script window and the comint window displaying the running Gnuplot process along with the plot of the function defined in the script.	S c r e e n s h o t s
	This shot shows the on-line help and the graphical interface to setting command arguments. Placing the screen cursor over a command and hitting C-c C-c or placing the mouse over a command and hitting shift-mouse-2 causes a small frame to open which contains widgets for setting arguments. The green button are pull-down menus with selectable options. The grey spaces are entry fields.
	Here is another example of the graphical argument setting interface. In this example, the arguments to the postscript terminal type are set.

Other Gnuplot resources on the web

• The Gnuplot homepage
• Bernhard Reiter's scientific plotting page
• Petr Mikulik's Gnuplot pm3d page
• David Ishee's X Gnuplot Front End