Why for can't print? (and suggestions about help print)

hello people,

I'm considering using gnuplot to replace bc in some cases.

There the for loop can be used for ploting and setting things.
as the help says

       plot for [filename in "A.dat B.dat C.dat"] filename using 1:2 with lines
       plot for [basename in "A B C"] basename.".dat" using 1:2 with lines
       set for [i = 1:10] style line i lc rgb "blue"
       unset for [tag = 100:200] label tag

however, it can't be used with print and the do loop requires {} even
for 1 instruction. so when (what i think as) the "natural way" for
a gnuplot beginner is

    f(x) = 2 * x + 3
    print for [ x = 0:20:2 ] x, f(x)

i have to write

    f(x) = 2 * x + 3
    do for [ x = 0:20:2 ] {print x, f(x) }

is there an internal/conceptual reason for print to not work like the
others instructions?

also: i would like to suggest adding some examples in the gnuplot help
print section:

 Syntax:
       print <expression> {, <expression>, ...}

to demonstrate that's it's easy to cast a num as string by using "".
my update should be

 Syntax:
       print <expression> {, <expression>, ...}

 Examples:

       # print some text data
       print "hello world"
       # print some numeric data
       x=12
       print 12,x
       # print combined data (first element *must* be a string)
       print "".x." was the result"

also: i would like to know if there is a way to choose the expression
separator. so i can write

    print x, f(x), g(x)

instead of

    print "".x. ",".f(x). ",".g(x)

thanks for helping.
regards,

-- 
Marc Chantreux
Direction du numérique de l'Université de Strasbourg
Pôle de Calcul et Services Avancés à la Recherche (CESAR)
http://annuaire.unistra.fr/p/20200


_______________________________________________
gnuplot-info mailing list
[email protected]
Membership management via: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gnuplot-info