> On Mar 12, 2015, at 6:08 PM, Alan W. Irwin <ir...@beluga.phys.uvic.ca> wrote: > > Hi Jim: > > Could you clarify the purpose of the -mfi and -mfo options > and the plreadmetafile routine? >
-mfi sets the file name that plreadmetafile will use if one is not otherwise specified by the caller. Nothing will happen unless there is a plreadmetafile() call in the program. -mfo option is a placeholder at this point. What it will do is save all the plots to a metafile simultaneous with the output device. I have not decided what to do if plmeta is selected. > It appears the options simply set metafile input and output file names without > doing anything else contrary to their self documentation in src/plargs.c > of "Read the specified PLplot metafile" and "Write the plot to the > specified PLplot metafile". > > The only potential actual use of mf_infile I can find within the > source tree is in plreadmetafile. That function appears to do > something similar to plrender, and it is only used in > examples/c/test_plbuf.c with an explicit name rather than NULL so the > result is mf_infile is just a placeholder (i.e., never actually used > in our current source tree). I set a name in test_plbuf just to make it easier during testing. I set it up to support both ways because both ways are useful. Right now the metafile is rendered with a plreadmetafile() call. I experimented with different approaches, but settled on triggering the rendering with a function call. This merits further discussion after release. > > By the way, if my interpretation of the purpose of plreadmetafile is > correct, can plrender simply call plreadmetafile (with an explicit > name for the plmeta file as read from the command line) to allow > removal of a lot of (redundant) code from plrender? Absolutely. After release I'm going to remove all the parsing code. I'm also going to add the capability to read from shared memory and over the network. > > I can also find no actual use of mf_outfile anywhere in the source > tree. So this appears to be a placeholder as well. Yep, it will be the "tee" command in Unix. > > Since we are in deep freeze now, we should leave these placeholders in > place for this release and not mess with plrender, but post-release > (or on a topic branch now), you should remove these options or > actually use them for something (with better documentation strings > such as "Set an input plmetafile name" and "Set an output plmetafile > name"), and you might also wish to call plreadmetafile from plrender > (if my above interpretation of the purpose of plreadmetafile is > correct). > > Alan > __________________________ > Alan W. Irwin > > Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy, > University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca). > > Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state > implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time > Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting > software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project > (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); > and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net). > __________________________ > > Linux-powered Science > __________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dive into the World of Parallel Programming The Go Parallel Website, sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a look and join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net/ _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
