Tux Machines

Gnuplot Version 6.0

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 01, 2024

Version 6.0 is the start of a new stable release series. Work on gnuplot 6 has proceeded in parallel with the incremental updates to version 5.4 over the past three years. The new version introduces extensions to the gnuplot command language, support for new output protocols, and additional plotting styles. Backward compatibility is given high priority in gnuplot development, so users should find no significant changes required for techniques or code they are currently using with gnuplot 5.

Gnuplot development is tracked in a git repository on SourceForge. You can generate a complete history of changes using "git log" after downloading:

git clone -b branch-6-0-stable git://git.code.sf.net/p/gnuplot/gnuplot-main

git log

Read on

Original in mailing lists:

Gnuplot version 6.0 is now available for download.

The source tarball is here

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuplot/files/gnuplot/6....

The Release Notes start with a long bullet-point list of new features

https://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/ReleaseNotes_6_0_0.html

Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven graphing utility for Linux,

MacOS, Windows, and many other platforms. It was originally created

to allow scientists and students to visualize mathematical functions and

data interactively, but has grown to support many non-interactive uses

such as web scripting.

Gnuplot has been supported and under active development since 1986.

This is the first new major version of gnuplot since the release of version 5

in January 2015. It introduces extensions to the gnuplot command language,

an expanded collection of special and complex-valued functions,

additional 2D and 3D plotting styles, and support for new output protocols.

Backward compatibility is given high priority in gnuplot development,

so users should find no significant changes required for techniques or code

they are currently using with gnuplot 5.

If you are curious about what changed during the past eight years of

incremental development, you might compare the on-line demo pages

for the initial version 5 release

https://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_5.0

and the current version 6 release

https://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_6.0

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the development,

documentation, and testing of gnuplot 6.

Happy gnuplotting in 2024 and beyond!

--

Ethan A Merritt

on behalf of the gnuplot development team