I would like to implement a plcircle function in PLplot.  I have a few
questions before I start making commits:

1. Should a call to plcircle draw one circle or many?

a) plcircle(PLINT n, PLFLT *x, PLFLT *y, PLFLT *r)

vs

b) plcircle(PLFLT x, PLFLT y, PLFLT r)

I am leaning toward (b), but I am content with either option.

2. How should the aspect ratio of the plot be handled?  My current
implementation, and I think the simplest to start with, is what is
done in example 3 - draw a set of N lines approximating a circle,
ignoring the aspect ratio.  This leads to squished circles if the
x-axis and y-axis scales are unequal.  I think that this is
reasonable, as otherwise the definition of a radius becomes ambiguous.
 I would like to hear some other opinions on this though.

3. Should there be separate functions for filled vs unfilled circles?
Or should this be passed as an extra argument to plcircle?

I can add plcircle, plarc and plellipse (or similar) functions to
PLplot, using the answers to the questions above.  I can also add
support for a driver-specific circle/arc/ellipse rendering path.  I
know Cairo has support for these primitives and I imagine some of the
libraries behind the other output drivers do as well.

Comments?

Hez

-- 
Hezekiah M. Carty
Graduate Research Assistant
University of Maryland
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science

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