The class plstream (and the other abstraction classes in plstream.h) provided in PLplot 4.99j (alpha) are to be considered as works in progress. By the standards outlined above, the work has barely begun. At this time, plstream is mostly a one to one mirror of the C API, which is to say, it is still far from the goals of simplification and abstraction outlined above. As such, it can be expected to change radically over the course of time. (We don't quote schedules--how long have you been waiting for 5.0? :-).

In any event, we would welcome improvement submissions along the lines of those above, but we would strongly discourage people from using plstream if they are expecting it to be rock solid. It will be changing, to become more like the design goals elucidated above.

So, if you like the ideas described above, and are willing to accept the burden of "upgrading" your code as the class plstream evolves, then feel free to use it. Just don't whine when I fix some of the methods to take references instead of pointers, when I eliminate some of the redundant methods to use the collapsed form, etc.