: ) wonderful world ( :

You can use GnuPlot with ‘dumb’ terminal setting to just have a really quick look on the data you’re working with..

$ echo $0
-zsh
$ seq -1000 1000 | sed 's.$./1000.' | bc -l > x
$ sed 's/^/e(/' x | sed 's.$.).' | bc -l > y
$ paste x y > f
$ gnuplot <(echo "set term dumb; plot 'f' with dots")

    3 ++----------------+----------------+-----------------+---------------++
      +                 +                +                 +     'f'   .    +
      |                                                                    ..
  2.5 ++                                                                 ...+
      |                                                                ...  |
      |                                                             ....    |
      |                                                           ...       |
    2 ++                                                       ....        ++
      |                                                     ....            |
      |                                                  ....               |
  1.5 ++                                             .....                 ++
      |                                           ....                      |
      |                                      .....                          |
    1 ++                                ......                             ++
      |                           .......                                   |
      |                    ........                                         |
      |           ..........                                                |
  0.5 +............                                                        ++
      ..                                                                    |
      +                 +                +                 +                +
    0 ++----------------+----------------+-----------------+---------------++
     -1               -0.5               0                0.5               1

$