Chapter 12. Beyond the defaults: workflow and styles
This chapter covers
- The standard workflow and some variations
- Using external editors and viewers
- Hotkeys and mousing
- Configuring your workspace
- Defining and using stylesheets
Overall, gnuplot’s defaults are pretty good—so good, in fact, that it’s easy to forget that they aren’t set in stone, and that there may be good reasons for changing them. This applies not only to the visual appearance of plots, but also to the way you interact with gnuplot.
In this chapter, we’ll explore some ways to customize your gnuplot experience. First, we’ll consider workflow alternatives: ways to organize your interaction with gnuplot beyond the regular, interactive session. We’ll discuss various shortcuts and conveniences, along with the possibility of using an external editor for authoring gnuplot command files rather than typing in commands interactively at the gnuplot prompt. Next come various topics that are more typically associated with user customization: custom key (and mouse) bindings, and the definition of private option settings and configurations.
Finally, I’ll introduce the idea of stylesheets: collections of appearance options for lines and points that can be applied to graphs to give them a different appearance. In particular, defining and choosing stylesheets judiciously makes it possible to create graphs with a specific purpose in mind, be it a computer screen, a black-and-white publication, or an overhead presentation.