I work in the RF (mobile infrastructure) industry and originally was using gnuplot, and octave occasionally. I do a lot of exploratory analysis and my preference is still gnuplot for this portion. Once an initial analysis of which parameters I want to capture is complete - then I code it in PDL. The benefit of the PDL native interface is important to me since I work in an automated batch mode when analyzing a number of sites (40 ish) at a time.
PGPlot was good in this way as well, however, I always had a problem getting my axis labelled correctly, gnuplot seemed to handle this flawlessly for my needs (2d charts primarily). PLPlot I had troubles using initially on windows and never really used it at all. The Prima interface was quite interesting and similar in expected results to gnuplot - along with the notebook like interface, that is where I would prefer to see things headed. My thoughts. Cliff. -----Original Message----- From: Karl Glazebrook [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: March 03, 2013 4:05 AM To: [email protected] Cc: perldl list Subject: Re: [Perldl] A common, working plotting package? 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
