Make GNUPLOT work on machine which dont have it

[RSKM]

Hello,
I use Fortran 95 (code blocks as IDE) with gnuplot to do some plots and all this works well on my PC which has fortran and GNUPlot installed.
I wish to distribute my program(EXE) on other windows machine which don’t have fortran or gnuplot. How do I make the plot work on a machine which doesn’t have gnuplot. I don’t mind increasing the size of my ‘EXE’ to make this happen. thanks,

 

[JG2828]

I don't use either Fortran or GNUPlot, but according to the GNUPlot website, it is a standalone program and can be distributed freely. You should be able to just include the GNUPlot bin folder and license file (in the 7z file here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuplot/files/gnuplot/5.2.6/)

along with your program exe.
Alternatively you could create a Windows installer using something like Inno Setup to install everything needed:

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

 

[RSKM]

thanks @JG2828, asking to install gnuplot is an option. i wish to know if i can get away with linking some libraries, and make gnuplot work from my exe, without asking people to install the gnuplot.

 

[IRstuff]

I'm not understanding what you are asking. Your code is written specifically to communicate with a GNUPLOT DLL that is your interface to the target machine's display. How is it possibly going to talk to anything else? The whole point of using GNUPLOT is that it is a containerization of the graphing routines, so the only way you can do without GNUPLOT is to directly incorporate those functions within your program, or write interfaces to other possibly non-existent graphing routines like matplotlib.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[drawoh]

RSKM,

How is your Fortran program communicating with Gnuplot? Excel, Libre[ ]Office and other spreadsheets read CSV[ ]files.

--
JHG

 

[3DDave]

According to the gnuplot FAQs the source code is copyrighted, so the choices are limited to none. As far as I can tell there's no DLL version of gnuplot so you will have difficulty merging it into a giant executable, even if it was a library and not restricted by the copyright.

 

[IRstuff]

According to

https://metacpan.org/pod/Term::Gnuplot#Runtime-link-with-gnuplot-DLL

a gnuplot DLL can be created.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[3DDave]

Stupid me trusting the gnuplot organization FAQ.

Had you looked at that FAQ you would have noted the same limitation: "The interface of this module to gnuplot versions 3.7/3.8 is going via a translation layer in Gnuplot.h."

Yup. An antique version of gnuplot that was an experiment to create a DLL.

The lastest version is from May 26, 2006

 

[RSKM]

@drawoh, My fortran program prepares the coordinates after some calculations and writes the .plt file which has instructions for gnuplot to do the plot. the .plt file is then called in fortran and the plot is generated.. this work seamless on my pc which has fortran/gnuplot allready installed. now, i wish to distribute the exe to other windows users who dont have any of these, i am looking for the simplest way they can use the program instead of installing gnuplot on their pc.

 

[RSKM]

3DDave,
i dont mind increasing the size of EXE due to merging additiaonl files. is there a way out

 

[IRstuff]

Then, the simplest thing is to include gnuplot with your installation; you can give the user the option to opt out and not use your program.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[RSKM]

Hello IRstuff, my program is not yet 'an installation'.. it only has a folder called "root" with 2 files > an excel file(input) and an EXE. The user doesnt have to "install" anything to run this, they just have to copy the "root" into their PC and click the macro in excel to inititate the program. Is there an option like - distributing a particular file/folder from gnuplot along with "root"

 

[IRstuff]

If you're on Windows, there is a version of gnuplot that simply unzips into a folder.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[RSKM]

yes, i am on windows, which 'version' of gnuplot r u referring.

 

[IRstuff]

The .7z file here

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuplot/files/gnuplot/5.2.6/

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[RSKM]

hi, that .7z folder unzips to a 86MB folder. which file from this should i keep in my folder.