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Introduction

Gnuplot is a freely available, command-driven graphical display tool for Unix. It compiles and works quite well on a number of Unix flavours as well as other operating systems. This library enables sending display requests to Gnuplot through simple f95 calls.

I believe that the best way to ensure prompt fixing of bugs in code and feature enhancements is to make stuff open source. I chose to release fortranposix and gnuplotfortran under the LGPL (Lesser GNU Public License). The terms of this license, unlike commercial licenses, permit you to use this library freely and unlike full GPL, permit commercial programs to link against it (please read the exact terms of the license to see what is allowed / not allowed).

In discussion that follows, reference will be made to three kinds of routines. The nomenclature adopted is by no means the best possible choice, but it serves its purpose.

  1. Atomic routines

    Present since ver. 0.1.

    As the name suggests, these are routines that correspond in a injective fashion to single gnuplot commands.

  2. Canned routines

    Present since ver. 0.1.

    These routines are composed of more than one gnuplot command, and collectively accomplish one logical task.

  3. Super-canned routines

    New in ver. 0.2.2.

    These routines are bigger in scope than the canned routines, and attempt to hide the entire interaction with gnuplot away from the user, presenting a single shot function / subroutine call to the user. These are created with a view towards reducing the amount of clutter induced in a user's program by having to declare control pointers or dictating fine points of gnuplot output. The trade off here is for the user to give up some control over the exact appearance of the plots in exchange for coding simplicity.