Table of Contents
pl_setcontlabelformat: Set
    format of numerical label for contourspl_setcontlabelparam: Set parameters of
    contour labelling other than format of numerical labelpladv: Advance the (sub-)pageplarc: Draw a circular or elliptical arc
    plaxes: Draw a box with axes, etc. with arbitrary
      origin
    plbin: Plot a histogram from binned data
    plbop: Begin a new pageplbox: Draw a box with axes, etcplbox3: Draw a box with axes, etc, in 3-d
    plbtime: Calculate broken-down time from
      continuous time for the current stream
    plcalc_world: Calculate world coordinates and
      corresponding window index from relative device coordinates
    plclear: Clear current (sub)page
    plcol0: Set color, cmap0
    plcol1: Set color, cmap1
    plcolorbar: Plot color bar for image, shade or gradient plots
    plconfigtime: Configure the transformation
        between continuous and broken-down time for the current stream
    plcont: Contour plot
    plcpstrm: Copy state parameters from the
      reference stream to the current stream
    plctime: Calculate continuous time from
      broken-down time for the current stream
    plend: End plotting session
    plend1: End plotting session for current stream
    plenv0: Same as plenv but if in multiplot
      mode does not advance the subpage, instead clears it
    plenv: Set up standard window and draw box
    pleop: Eject current page
    plerrx: Draw error bars in x direction
    plerry: Draw error bars in the y direction
    plfamadv: Advance to the next family file on the
      next new page
    plfill: Draw filled polygon
    plfill3: Draw filled polygon in 3D
    plflush: Flushes the output stream
    plfont: Set font
    plfontld: Load Hershey fonts
    plGetCursor: Wait for graphics input event and translate to world coordinates.
    plgchr: Get character default height and current
      (scaled) height
    plgcmap1_range: Get the cmap1 argument
      range for continuous color plots
    plgcol0: Returns 8-bit RGB values for given color
      index from cmap0
    plgcol0a: Returns 8-bit RGB values and PLFLT alpha
      transparency value for given color index from cmap0
    plgcolbg:  Returns the background color
      (cmap0[0]) by 8-bit RGB value
    plgcolbga:  Returns the background color (cmap0[0])
      by 8-bit RGB value and PLFLT alpha transparency value
    plgcompression: Get the current
      device-compression setting
    plgdev: Get the current device (keyword) name
    plgdidev: Get parameters that define current
      device-space window
    plgdiori: Get plot orientation
    plgdiplt: Get parameters that define current
      plot-space window
    plgdrawmode: Get drawing mode (depends on
device support!)
    plgfam: Get family file parameters
    plgfci: Get FCI (font characterization integer)
    plgfnam: Get output file name
    plgfont: Get family, style and weight of the
      current font
    plglevel: Get the (current) run level
    plgpage: Get page parameters
    plgra: Switch to graphics screen
    plgradient: Draw linear gradient inside polygon
    plgriddata: Grid data from irregularly sampled
      data
    plgspa: Get current subpage parameters
    plgstrm: Get current stream number
    plgver: Get the current library version number
    plgvpd: Get viewport limits in normalized
      device coordinates
    plgvpw: Get viewport limits in world coordinates
    plgxax: Get x axis parameters
    plgyax: Get y axis parameters
    plgzax: Get z axis parameters
    plhist: Plot a histogram from unbinned data
    plhlsrgb: Convert HLS color to RGB
    plimagefr: Plot a 2D matrix using cmap1
    plimage: Plot a 2D matrix using cmap1 with
      automatic color adjustment
    plinit: Initialize PLplot
    pljoin: Draw a line between two points
    pllab: Simple routine to write labels
    pllegend: Plot legend using discretely annotated filled boxes, lines, and/or lines of symbols
    pllightsource: Sets the 3D position of the light
      source
    plline: Draw a line
    plline3: Draw a line in 3 space
    pllsty: Select line style
    plmap: Plot continental outline or shapefile
      data in world coordinates
    plmapfill: Plot all or a subset of
      Shapefile data, filling the polygons
    plmapline: Plot all or a subset of
      Shapefile data using lines in world coordinates
    plmapstring: Plot all or a subset of
      Shapefile data using strings or points in world coordinates
    plmaptex: Draw text at points defined by
      Shapefile data in world coordinates
    plmeridians: Plot latitude and longitude lines
    plmesh: Plot surface mesh
    plmeshc: Magnitude colored plot surface mesh with contour
    plmkstrm: Creates a new stream and makes it the
      default
    plmtex: Write text relative to viewport boundaries
    plmtex3: Write text relative to viewport boundaries
      in 3D plots
    plot3d: Plot 3-d surface plot
    plot3dc: Magnitude colored plot surface with contour
    plot3dcl: Magnitude colored plot surface
      with contour for z[x][y] with y index limits
    plparseopts: Parse command-line arguments
    plpat: Set area line fill pattern
    plpath: Draw a line between two points, accounting
      for coordinate transforms
    plpoin: Plot a glyph at the specified points
    plpoin3: Plot a glyph at the specified 3D points
    plpoly3: Draw a polygon in 3 space
    plprec: Set precision in numeric labels
    plpsty: Select area fill pattern
    plptex: Write text inside the viewport
    plptex3: Write text inside the viewport of a 3D plot
    plrandd: Random number generator
      returning a real random number in the range [0,1]
    plreplot: Replays contents of plot buffer to
      current device/file
    plrgbhls: Convert RGB color to HLS
    plschr: Set character size
    plscmap0: Set cmap0 colors by 8-bit RGB values
    plscmap0a: Set cmap0 colors by 8-bit RGB values and
      PLFLT alpha transparency value
    plscmap0n: Set number of colors in cmap0
    plscmap1_range: Set the cmap1 argument
      range for continuous color plots
    plscmap1: Set opaque RGB cmap1 colors
      values
    plscmap1a: Set semitransparent cmap1 RGBA colors.
    plscmap1l: Set cmap1 colors using a
      piece-wise linear relationship
    plscmap1la: Set cmap1 colors and alpha
      transparency using a piece-wise linear relationship
    plscmap1n: Set number of colors in cmap1
    plscol0:  Set 8-bit RGB values for given
      cmap0 color index
    plscol0a:  Set 8-bit
      RGB values and PLFLT alpha transparency value for given
      cmap0 color index
    plscolbg: Set the background color
      by 8-bit RGB value
    plscolbga: Set the background color
      by 8-bit RGB value and PLFLT alpha transparency value.
    plscolor: Used to globally turn color output on/off
    plscompression: Set device-compression level
    plsdev: Set the device (keyword) name
    plsdidev: Set parameters that define current
      device-space window
    plsdimap: Set up transformation from metafile
      coordinates
    plsdiori: Set plot orientation
    plsdiplt: Set parameters that define current
      plot-space window
    plsdiplz: Set parameters incrementally (zoom mode)
      that define current plot-space window
    plsdrawmode: Set drawing mode (depends on
      device support!)
    plseed: Set seed for internal random
      number generator.
    plsesc: Set the escape character for text strings
    plsetopt: Set any command-line option
    plsfam: Set family file parameters
    plsfci: Set FCI (font characterization integer)
    plsfnam: Set output file name
    plsfont: Set family, style and weight of the
      current font
    plshades: Shade regions on the basis of value
    plshade:  Shade individual region on the basis of value
    plslabelfunc: Assign a function to use for generating custom axis labels
    plsmaj: Set length of major ticks
    plsmem: Set the memory area to be plotted (RGB)
    plsmema: Set the memory area to be plotted (RGBA)
    plsmin: Set length of minor ticks
    plsori: Set orientation
    plspage: Set page parameters
    plspal0: Set the cmap0 palette using the
      specified cmap0*.pal format file
    plspal1: Set the cmap1 palette using the
      specified cmap1*.pal format file
    plspause: Set the pause (on end-of-page) status
    plsstrm: Set current output stream
    plssub: Set the number of subpages in x and y
    plssym: Set symbol size
    plstar: Initialization
    plstart: Initialization
    plstransform: Set a global coordinate transform
      function
    plstring: Plot a glyph at the specified points
    plstring3: Plot a glyph at the specified 3D points
    plstripa: Add a point to a strip chart
    plstripc: Create a 4-pen strip chart
    plstripd: Deletes and releases memory used by a
      strip chart
    plstyl: Set line style
    plsurf3d: Plot shaded 3-d surface plot
    plsurf3dl: Plot shaded 3-d surface plot for
      z[x][y] with y index limits
    plsvect: Set arrow style for vector plots
    plsvpa: Specify viewport in absolute coordinates
    plsxax: Set x axis parameters
    plsyax: Set y axis parameters
    plsym: Plot a glyph at the specified points
    plszax: Set z axis parameters
    pltext: Switch to text screen
    pltimefmt: Set format for date / time labels
    plvasp: Specify viewport using aspect ratio only
    plvect: Vector plot
    plvpas: Specify viewport using coordinates and aspect ratio
    plvpor: Specify viewport using normalized subpage coordinates
    plvsta: Select standard viewport
    plw3d: Configure the transformations required for projecting a 3D surface on a 2D window
    plwidth: Set pen width
    plwind: Specify window
    plxormod: Enter or leave xor mode
    The purpose of this chapter is to document the common API for every PLplot function that should be available across all PLplot language bindings. Therefore, this chapter excludes obsolete/deprecated API functions which are listed in Chapter 21, Obsolete/Deprecated API for PLplot and also excludes API specialized for each language binding that is documented in Chapter 18, The Specialized C/C++ API for PLplot and subsequent chapters.
The common API constitutes the most important part of the PLplot API that programmers need to know.
For the C case, these common API routines have prototypes
  defined in plplot.h using PLplot C types for arguments.  The names
  for these types have been chosen to be self-documenting.  So
  PLINT refers to the PLplot integer type, and
  PLFLT refers to the PLplot floating-point type.
  If the name has a _VECTOR or
  _MATRIX suffix the type corresponds to the
  one-dimensional or two-dimensional array argument type native to the
  language being supported by PLplot.  If the name does not have either
  of those two suffixes or if it has a suffix of
  _SCALAR, then it refers to a scalar quantity.
  Finally, note that most of our common API arguments are input only and
  are guaranteed not to be changed by the PLplot routine.  However, in
  some cases the argument is used for output quantities which
  are changed by the PLplot routine, and in this
  case we include _NC (standing for
  "non-constant") in the argument type name.
We document our common API below for the C case, but it should be fairly straightforward to infer the corresponding API for any of our supported languages from these results because of the self-documenting names we use for the PLplot C types for arguments. Of course, the best way to learn how to use our common API for the language of your choice is to look at our standard set of examples. For additional language documentation you should consult the various chapters in Part III, “ Supported computer languages ” as well.
What follows is a list of all common API functions of the latest PLplot version. The following information is provided for each function:
The function name and a brief description.
The function as it would be called from C.
A complete description of the function.
A description of each argument that the function takes.
The redacted argument form of the function as well as any language specific variations that might occur on the general calling scheme described in the following paragraph.
A list of PLplot examples that demonstrate how to use the function.
    The general calling scheme for the other languages supported
    by PLplot is as follows, using the function
    plline as an example.
    
	  C: plline( n, x, y );
	
	  Ada/standard: Draw_Curve( x, y );
	
	  Ada/traditional: plline( x, y );
	
	  C++: pls->line(n, x, y );
	
	  D: plline( x, y );
	
	  Fortran: plline( x, y )
	
	  Java: pls.line( x, y );
	
	  Lua: pl.line( x, y )
	
	  OCaml: plline x y;
	
	  Octave: plline( x', y' );
	
	  Python: plline( x, y )
	
	  Tcl/Tk: $w cmd plline x y
	
    Note that in all our supported languages other than C and C++, the
    argument nxy