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. ------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------