[texhax] A PSTricks question

[E. Krishnan]

On Sat, 6 Sep 2003, Prof. Sudhir R. Ghorpade wrote:

> what, according to the pros is the best tool to
> draw mathematical graphs and insert them in a LaTeX file? 

Well, I may not be a "pro"  but thought I'll put in my opinions about this 
question :)

If you consider "drawing graphs" and "inserting them in LaTeX files" 
separately, you can do the former using any number of tools such as 
"gnuplot" and the latter using the "graphicx" package. 

But if the two operations are to be done within TeX (with some invisible 
help from PostScript), then you can use PSTricks or MetaPost. (I've 
experience only with PSTricks and I like it.)  The advantage here is the 
tight integration of the graphics and the surrounding text,
including the facility to insert  labels and other text within the 
graphics  (and that too in fonts matching the surrounding text). The flip 
side is that even simple diagrams may require some geometric computations 
and a bit of coding (but it's fun anyway). 

 -- 
Krishnan