##
$a = -2;
$b = -2;
## This expression will be correctly parsed by FEQ
$f = FEQ("$a*x^2 ? {$b}*x for x in [$xmin, $xmax] using color:blue
and weight:2");
in an attempt to resolve problems with the sign of $b and the
preceding operator.
Now you should just write
$f = FEQ("${a}x^2 + ${b}x for x in [$xmin, $xmax] using color:blue
and weight:2");
and FEQ will take care of adjacent +- or -+ or - signs with no prompting.