In Gnuplot you can indeed write each command in a very terse way; some simple examples:

    plot cos(x) ls 2, sin(x) ls 3

    plot 'file.dat' u 1:2 w lp lw 3 ps 2

But you can also write the same code in a descriptive way:

    plot cos(x) linestyle 2, sin(x) linestyle 3

    plot 'file.dat' using 1:2 with linespoints linewidth 3 pointsize 2

I think most people prefer the terse version once they learn it. But I’d definitely recommend learning the descriptive commands first, as the abbreviations follow very naturally from there.