I'm excited that with PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot and PDL::Graphics::Prima we finally have two graphics/GUI alternatives for PDL that are available on all of what I consider the PDL platforms we support:
* unix/linux * macosx * windows This is a huge step forward to improve the usability and robustness of PDL for computation/programming with perl. --Chris On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 10:29 AM, Christian Soeller <[email protected]> wrote: > Karl, Craig, > > I think the key is to have (1) *one* high level interface (and > PDL::Graphics::Simple seems to implement that idea) and (2) have at least > one 'backend' (i.e. the various plotting packages/libs) that robustly builds > across all platforms (gnuplot may fit that bill) so that basic use is a "no > brainer" once you learned the PDL plotting command set , e.g. plot(sin($x)) > without worrying much about device opening etc. "All" platform these days > probably means 3 - win, linux, os x. > > It would be nice to use a sleek, modern, licensing unencumbered plotting > backend/library but unfortunately that does not seem to exist. It might also > to be too much to ask for just one plotting backend that is both good at > fast near real-time plotting (animation/oscilloscope type) and publication > quality output - the requirements are very different. > > Re Karl's question, biophysics/bio users appear to use language specific > (matlab, idl, python, R etc) or commercial packages for the less computer > savvy (origin, sigma plot) with excel at the lower end. In my own work and > that of others plots are often imported into vector graphics SW and then > further integrated/tidied up (e.g. A Illustrator). > > Christian > > -- > Christian Soeller PhD - Dept. of Physiology - Univ. of Auckland > Sent with Sparrow > > On Sunday, 3 March 2013 at 2:52 PM, Craig DeForest wrote: > > In solar physics, aside from my group it has been basically IDL all the way. > Lately there's an initiative called "SunPy" that uses the Python Imaging > Library, and it doesn't suck. For 3-D some the modeling groups tend to use a > heavyweight commercial package whose name I forget, and dplot has continued > to get better (although it is a bit arcane). > > To be fair to PLplot, it is quite a bit prettier than PGPLOT and it does > reward effort. Derek has made some really beautiful figures with it - but > they took a lot of effort. > > IMHO, Gnuplot makes the prettiest graphics of all the quasi-standard > packages (including the commercial ones) with little messing around, which > is why I got on that bandwagon. > > I'm still holding off, waiting for comments on the sketchup of > PDL::Graphics::Simple. If I had my druthers, Alien::Gnuplot would already be > working, and we'd be making the transition to Gnuplot as our default 2-D/3-D > plotting package for publications, and/or Prima for interaction and widget > building. > > > On Mar 3, 2013, at 4:04 AM, Karl Glazebrook <[email protected]> wrote: > > I don't know how 'modern' PLplot is. The documentation still talks about > Tektronix terminals! > > I did some googling, DISLIN seemed the closest but is only semi-frree. > > In astronomy people really only use pgplot at the c/f77 level. (At a higher > level they use language specific graphics, e.g. IDL, IRAF, Python, sm (!), > gnuplot, MMA). > > What about other scientific fields? What do people you know use? > > > Looks dismal. Perhaps the moral is people who put significant effort in to > visuals tend to go commercial? > > Karl > > > On 05/02/2013, at 11:12 AM, Doug Hunt <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi David: I know I've been slack on keeping the 'high level' version of > PDL::Graphics::PLplot up to date, but I have been keeping up with PLplot > development at the lower level. That means that all C level PLplot commands > are available in perl and that the perl bindings pass all PLplot tests. > > PLplot is better-than-average open source project with many dedicated > long-time contributors. It seems to be well maintained. > > Regards, > > Doug > > [email protected] > Software Engineer > UCAR - COSMIC, Tel. (303) 497-2611 > > On Mon, 4 Feb 2013, David Mertens wrote: > > 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 > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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
