The Basics

The header file¶

The whole G3P library implemented as a single header file that you have to include it once in your C++ code:

#include <g3p/gnuplot>

cling include paths

If G3P is not installed in a standard folder for headers, you can add it to the cling include paths using one of the following methods:

#pragma

.(command)

#pragma cling add_include_path("g3p/include/path")

`gnuplot` instance¶

Now you can start with a gnuplot instance that is defined in g3p namespace. We name our instance gp:

g3p::gnuplot gp;

C and C++ conventions¶

There are two ways to send string literals (e.g. Gnuplot commands) and variables to a g3p::gnuplot instance: C and C++ conventions. You can even mix and match them.

Gnuplot comes with lots of demos that you can find them here. For our first plot we use almost a verbatim copy of the Simple Plots demo. Here are the G3P versions using both conventions along with the original Gnuplot version for the sake of comparisons:

C convention

C++ convention

gnuplot

int count = 200;
gp ( "set title 'Simple Plots ( %d points )' font ',20'", count )
   ( "set key left box" )
   ( "set samples %d", count)
   ( "set style data points" )
   ( "plot [-10:10] sin(x), atan(x),cos(atan(x))" ) // <-- no semicolon

int count = 200;
gp << "set title 'Simple Plots (" << count << " points )' font ',20'\n"
   << "set key left box\n"
   << "set samples" << count << "\n"
   << "set style data points\n"
   << "plot [-10:10] sin(x), atan(x),cos(atan(x))\n" // <-- no semicolon

Displaying the plot in Jupyter 🪐

To display a plot generated by g3p::gnuplot instance in a Jupyter Notebook you need to have the instance without a semicolon as the last element of a code cell. That’s why the previous examples are not ended up with a semicolon. So, to replot the previous one, you can type the name of the g3p::gnuplot instance without semicolon and then Shift+Enter:

gp

Output

Another way to achieve this is the xcpp::display() function. A subtle distinction between using xcpp::display() and omitting the last semicolon is that the latter results in a cell output including a prompt number in a Jupyter notebook, while the former only shows the plot. This behavior is consistent with the Python kernel implementation:

g3p::display(gp);

Output

Yet another way to explicitly display a plot is g3p::display() function. This one has an optional 2^nd argument that can be used to show an animated plot.

Newline¶

As you may noticed in the above examples, one important difference between C++ and C conventions is that a newline character will be added automatically at the end of a string literal for the latter. In G3P, there are various ways to send a newline to a g3p::gnuplot instance:

Implicit
- String literal in parenthesis (i.e. overloaded function operator): gp("...")
Explicit
- String literal: gp << "\n"
- End-of-line member function: gp.endl()
- End-of-line manipulator: gp << g3p::endl

Let’s try all of the above methods in the same order for our next plot:

count = 100;
gp (  "set title 'Simple Plots ( %d points )", count ); // implicit
gp << "set key right nobox" << "\n";                    // explicit - string literal
gp <<  "set samples" << count;
gp.endl();                                              // explicit - member function
gp << "plot [-pi/2:pi] cos(x),-(sin(x) > sin(x+1) ? sin(x) : sin(x+1))"
   << g3p::endl                                         // explicit - manipulator

Flush¶

G3P uses buffered i/o to communicate with g3p::gnuplot instances. That means the plotting commands you use in your C/C++ code are not necessarily received by the g3p::gnuplot instance at any moment unless you ensure the buffer is flushed. That’s particularly important after executing plot, splot or replot commands to ensure the plot is displayed. Like newline, there are various ways in G3P to flush the buffers:

Implicit (available only in Jupyter Notebooks)
- Omitting semicolon from a g3p::gnuplot instance as the last element of a cell or using xcpp::display()/ g3p::display()
Explicit
- End-of-line member function: gp.endl()
- Flush member function: gp.flush()
- Log member function: gp.log()
- Flush manipulator: gp << g3p::flush()