GNUPlot disappears immediately after its creation

Question

I have created the gnuplot, but the problem is that it disappears immediately. I tried different solutions proposed in other threads, but none of them worked. Solution 1: comment the line bf.append("quit").append(NL); in the file GNUPlotParameters.java. Solution 2: put the line gp.setPersist(true); before gp.plot();.

DataSetPlot plotdata = new DataSetPlot(Xvals);
plotdata.setTitle("");
GNUPlot gp = new GNUPlot("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\gnuplot\\bin\\pgnuplot.exe");
gp.addPlot(plotdata);
gp.plot();
gp.setPersist(true);

So, how to solve this problem?

P.S. I'm running this code on Windows 7.

Intuitionism

Answer 1

Unfortunately this seems to be a bug in gnuplot under windows. See this bug report.

If you want this type of functionality, you have two options:

1. use CygWin version of gnuplot
2. save the result to a file, or use the JPlot swing component.

EDIT: There is a new version of JavaPlot which should fix this issue.

Garrik

Answer 2

Look into the -persist option to pass to gnuplot, you could probably change the third line in your code to

GNUPlot gp = new GNUPlot("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\gnuplot\\bin\\pgnuplot.exe -persist");

or

GNUPlot gp = new GNUPlot("C:\\Program Files (x86)\\gnuplot\\bin\\pgnuplot.exe /noend");

Here is my source.

Detrition

You can't do that. The initialization method does not allow parameters. – Garrik

@Panayotis, do you mean that when calling gnuplot from java you cannot pass command line flags? I am not a Windows user, but that seems strange to me. I checked and there are posts (e.g. groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot/…) where people are passing flags to gnuplot called in Windows. – Detrition

You can pass command line flags, but not with JavaPlot. The single argument is only the filename executable. What you wrote will try to call the executable "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\gnuplot\\bin\\pgnuplot.exe /noend" which of course does not exist. – Garrik

I had a similar problem as the OP (gnuplot demos immediately disappearing) and calling them with gnuplot -persist example.gnu solved the issue. Thanks! – Horripilate