Bug#741073: gnuplot: Default 'apt-get install gnuplot' installs a non-x11 version

[Dima Kogan]

Package: gnuplot
Version: 4.7~2-4
Severity: normal
Hi.

This isn't strictly a bug, but a request. Currently the "gnuplot"
package is

  Depends: gnuplot-nox | gnuplot-x11 | gnuplot-qt

Thus when a user says "apt-get install gnuplot", they get a gnuplot with
no support for interactive, graphical output. This is surely a safe
option, but it's not what most users want. I'm the author of a gnuplot
frontend (feedgnuplot), and at least 3 different people sent me bug
reports that were due to them accidentally installing a gnuplot without
graphical output.

This problem is exacerbated by gnuplot reporting no error messages at
all when trying to make plots with gnuplot-nox without setting up a
terminal first (another bug report coming for this).

I propose that gnuplot-nox be moved to the end of the dependency list,
since wanting this package is an exceptional case, not the normal one.