This follows on from the discussion initiated by Jack in http://lists.wfu.edu/pipermail/gretl-devel/2014-September/005285.html ("Request for Comments: gnuplot and foreign"). In CVS and snapshots we now have a block-type command named "plot", ready for testing and further comment. It has the following characteristics: * The block starts with "plot" followed by a required parameter: the name of a list, a single series or a matrix. This parameter specifies the data to be plotted. The starting line may be prefixed with the "savename <- " apparatus to save a plot as an icon in the GUI program. * The block ends with "end plot". * Inside the block you have zero or more lines of these types, identified by an initial keyword: - "option": specify a single option (details below) - "options": specify multiple options on a single line - "literal": a command to be passed to gnuplot literally - "printf": a printf statement whose result will be passed to gnuplot literally The options available are basically those of the current "gnuplot" command, but with a few differences. For one thing you don't need the leading double-dash in an "option" (or "options") line. Besides that, * You can't use the option --matrix=whatever with "plot": that possibility is handled by providing the name of a matrix on the initial "plot" line. * The --input=filename option is not supported: use "gnuplot" for the case where you're supplying the entire plot specification yourself. * the several options linear-fit, quadratic-fit, suppress-fitted, etc., pertaining to the presence and type of a fitted line, are replaced in "plot" by a single option "fit" which requires a parameter. Supported values for the parameter are: none, linear, quadratic, cubic, inverse, semilog and loess. Example: option fit=quadratic As with "gnuplot" the default is to show a linear fit in an X-Y scatter if it's significant at the 10 percent level. If more than one option is given on a line, the options should be separated by spaces. The "printf" facility allows the use of string variables without having to resort to "@"-style string substitution. Here's a simple example, the plot spec from the "bandplot" package, in "before" and "after" forms: <hansl mode="old"> gnuplot 1 2 3 4 --with-lines --matrix=plotmat \ --suppress-fitted --output=display \ { set linetype 3 lc rgb "#0000ff"; set title "@title"; \ set nokey; set xlabel "@xname"; } </hansl> <hansl mode="new"> plot plotmat options with-lines fit=none literal set linetype 3 lc rgb "#0000ff" literal set nokey printf "set title \"%s\"", title printf "set xlabel \"%s\"", xname end plot --output=display </hansl> Note that --output=display is appended to "end plot": this option could be "inlined" like the others but IMO it has a different status and I favour the idiom of placing it outside the block. Also note that if you give a matrix to "plot" it's assumed you want to plot all the columns. In addition, if you give a single series and the dataset is time series, it's assumed you want a time-series plot. Nothing is "set in stone" at this point and comments are welcome. I can think of various possible extensions of this approach myself, but I thought the first task was to put something in place which basically covers the functionality of the "gnuplot" command but in a cleaner and less clotted fashion. Allin