Name

---

    PLOT_ENHANCED

Purpose

---

    This procedure serves as a wrapper around the IDL PLOT procedure that
    adds the ability to produce encapulated Postscript versions of the plots
    using the original IDL plot format or with the popular GNUPLOT package
    which is available for most platforms (this package must be installed
    separately and available in your path before this capability will be
    functional).

Category

---

    Graphics.

Calling Sequence

---

    PLOT_ENHANCED, [x],
                  y,
                  TYPE=type, $
                  FILENAME=filename, $
                  ORIENTATION=orientation, $
                  KEEP=keep, $
                  ... (see IDL PLOT procedure for other optional parameters)

Inputs

---

      x
          A vector containing the values to be plotted on the abscissa or
          the independent variable (this parameter is optional and if
          omitted will be replaced by the point number)
      y
          A vector containing the values to be plotted on the ordinate or
          the dependent variable (this parameter is required)

Keyword Parameters

---

      TYPE
          An optional keyword parameter that specifies the type of plot to
          produce; possible values are
            TYPE='IDL' causes this procedure to act in the same way as
                            the IDL PLOT procedure
            TYPE='PS' causes a Postscript version of the IDL plot to be
                            created in the file specified using the FILENAME

Parameter

---

            TYPE='GNUPLOT' causes a Postscript version of a GNUPLOT plot to
                            be created in the file specified using the
                            FILENAME parameter (optionally the GNUPLOT script
                            can be saved by using the KEEP parameter)

Filename

---

          A required keyword parameter if the TYPE keyword is set to either
          'PS' or 'GNUPLOT' that specifies the name of the file to contain
          the output rendering (if not provided, a DIALOG_PICKFILE() will be
          presented to the user)
      ORIENTATION
          An optional keyword parameter indicating the orientation of the plot;
          possible values ar 'LANDSCAPE' (default), 'SQUARE', or 'PORTRAIT'
      KEEP
          An optional keyword parameter that indicates that the GNUPLOT script
          file should also be saved with a ".gnuplot" extension appended to
          the FILENAME parameter (this has an effect only when TYPE='GNUPLOT')

Result

---

    An on-screen or in file rendering (encapsulated Postscript format) of the
    graphs of vector arguments.
   

Side Effects

---

    None

Requires

---

    TAG_EXISTS

Modification History

---

    Written by: Carl Salvaggio, Philip Salvaggio
    October, 2009 Original code
    November, 2009 Added additional GNUPLOT functionality
                      Added TAG_EXISTS function to search extra keywords
                      structure for PLOT options (alleviating some of the
                      limitations of using KEYWORD_SET for this purpose,
                      namely that undefined tags resulted in a run-time
                      error)
   

Disclaimer

---

    This source code is provided "as is" and without warranties as to performance
    or merchantability. The author and/or distributors of this source code may
    have made statements about this source code. Any such statements do not
    constitute warranties and shall not be relied on by the user in deciding
    whether to use this source code.
    This source code is provided without any express or implied warranties
    whatsoever. Because of the diversity of conditions and hardware under which
    this source code may be used, no warranty of fitness for a particular purpose
    is offered. The user is advised to test the source code thoroughly before
    relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk of using the source code.