I believe PLplot hits all of these check-items. Unfortunately, it has no great champion. I stopped using it because I feared I would have to write too much C to bend it to my will. Not that I've had a dearth of C in my own plotting library work... :)
David On Feb 4, 2013 4:22 AM, "Karl Glazebrook" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi everyone > > Surely there must be a modern C-callable (and implemented! No java or > python please) plotting library which supports objects, transparency, GUI > embedding,PDF etc., looks attractive, is cross-platform and is efficient > for large datasets? > > Karl > > > > On 31/01/2013, at 7:12 PM, Timothy Pickering <[email protected]> > wrote: > > >> Hi all, > >> > >> Based on the past few days of posts, I'd like to open up a thorny issue: > >> > >> Do we have a plotting package that installs smoothly across all three > major platforms? > >> > >> I've been playing with python and matplotlib for a couple of months > now, and although the OO interface is a royal pain, at least I know I can > send a script to students/collaborators and it will just *work* for them. > >> > >> I've seen that PLplot is throwing up errors for some people, and now we > have Gnuplot grumbling as well. PGPLOT is still difficult to install and > not interactive-friendly.... > >> > >> If we want more PDL adopters, we should pick a plotting system and put > all our energies in making that work flawlessly for a couple of years, so > that interested people don't get discouraged. > >> > >> I also have a selfish reason - if we choose something other than > PGPLOT, it means a rewrite of the PDL Book, and I don't want to make the > investment of time if we suddenly decide that 'oops, $PLOTTING_SYSTEM isn't > working anymore/new shiny thing is the way to go'. > >> > >> I'd be happy to get any plotting package working for the SciPDL Mac > binary working, if we get a general consensus here. > >> > >> Matt > > > > i'm going to be an instigator again and point out that pgplot, plplot, > and gnuplot are all ~20 year old pieces of legacy software. at least > gnuplot is actively maintained and evolving, but pgplot has hardly been > touched in ~10 years. i've tried plplot a few times, but always ended up > throwing up my hands after a short while. maintaining dependencies with > packages like these will always be a headache and will hold back adoption > and evolution of PDL. note that i haven't looking into prima at all, > however. > > > > tying back into the previous discussion about notebook-type interfaces > like what ipython has i'd like to point out the existence of > http://d3js.org/. ipython notebooks are great, but using matplotlib > graphics within a browser is rather limiting. integrating something like > D3 opens up a lot more flexibility and capability. a browser-based PDL > shell that used D3 for plotting could be pretty kick butt.... > > > > tim > > > > -- > > +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ > > | T. E. Pickering, Ph.D. | Southern African Large Telescope | > > | SALT Astronomer | SAAO | > > | [email protected] (520) 305-9823 | Observatory Road | > > | [email protected] +27(0)214606284 | 7925 Observatory, South Africa | > > +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ > > overflow error in /dev/null > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Perldl mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/perldl > > > _______________________________________________ > Perldl mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.jach.hawaii.edu/mailman/listinfo/perldl >
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