[IPython-dev] Interactive Matplotlib in the browser

Brian Granger ellisonbg at gmail.com
Thu Oct 11 23:45:51 EDT 2012


It is not clear to me that the stream of PNGs will win in the end.  If
you make a single static plot of a large data set, that is way better
than trying to send the data to the browser and rendering it there.
But if you have to send hundreds or thousands of PNGs to get
interactivity, that benefit may be washed out.  Especially if you have
multiple users interacting with plots - the server could quickly grind
to a halt.  I think we should do tests to see how bad it gets, taking
into account the multiple user question.  The one performance benefit
that I can think of is that you can tune the level of interactivity to
limit the data that comes back.  For large data sets, users might be
willing to settle for less interactivity.  That option doesn't exist
when you send all the data back.

Cheers,

Brian



On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 2:49 PM, Michael Droettboom <mdroe at stsci.edu> wrote:
> I have a proof-of-concept way to make interactive plots in the browser work
> using transparent PNGs described here:
>
> http://mdboom.github.com/blog/2012/10/11/matplotlib-in-the-browser-its-coming/
>
> No PRs yet, because this is miles from ready for that, but it would be
> helpful to get some feedback about how this works in different
> browsers/platforms/network environments etc.
>
> Mike
>
> _______________________________________________
> IPython-dev mailing list
> IPython-dev at scipy.org
> http://mail.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/ipython-dev
>



-- 
Brian E. Granger
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
bgranger at calpoly.edu and ellisonbg at gmail.com



More information about the IPython-dev mailing list