Gnuplot jitter
by Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Gnuplot 5.2 has introduced the "set jitter" command, which I think could
be quite nice to incorporate in our plot/gnuplot command combo. Just to
show you what the "jitter" thing is about, I prepared a little script,
where we plot log wage versus educational level from the Mroz dataset:
<hansl>
open mroz87.gdt --quiet
lww = log(WW)
list X = lww WE
plot X
option fit=none
end plot --output=display
plot X
option fit=none
literal set jitter spread 0.05 square
end plot --output=display
</hansl>
As you can see if your gnuplot version is 5.2, the second plot is much
nicer (I'm attaching a couple of png files if your gnuplot version is
older).
I was thinking we could have a --jitter option (possibly with parameters)
to the gnuplot command; I would even think it could be a good idea to have
this on by default is the x-axis series is discrete. OTOH, one may argue
that the same effects is achieved quite easily via a literal, as in my
previous example, and the gnuplot commmand is already loaded with lots of
options and we don't need a new one.
Opinions welcome.
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Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali (DiSES)
Università Politecnica delle Marche
(formerly known as Università di Ancona)
r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it
http://www2.econ.univpm.it/servizi/hpp/lucchetti
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