PLplot is a library of functions that are useful for making scientific
plots. PLplot can be used from within compiled languages such as C, C++,
Fortran and Java, and interactively from interpreted languages such as
Octave, Python, Perl and Tcl.
The PLplot library can be used to create standard x-y plots, semilog
plots, log-log plots, contour plots, 3D surface plots, mesh plots,
bar charts and pie charts. Multiple graphs (of the same or different
sizes) may be placed on a single page with multiple lines in each
graph.
some initial work by Matthias Kilian.
thanks to the people who tested this.