How do I get gnuplot to compile on my system?

Read the files README and README.Install, edit the Makefile according to taste, and run make or whatever is suitable for your operating system. If you get a complaint about a missing file libplot.a or something similar when building gnuplot for X11, remove -DUNIXPLOT from the TERMFLAGS= line, remove -lplot from the DTBS= line and run again. If you are making X11 on a sun, type 'make x11_sun'.