[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Plotting packages
Jim Hugunin
hugunin@mit.edu
Fri, 7 Mar 1997 14:58:57 -0500
Recent posts have started me thinking about plotting and NumPy again. This
seems to be the weakest link in the package at the moment (since I've only
been receiving minimal bug reports for the first beta release). I'd really
like people to be able to type:
plot(sin(arange(0,5*pi,pi/10)))
and have something reasonable happen. While I continue to avow that this
is not considered a basic part of NumPy, the current state of affairs
regarding plotting packages is rather embarrassing. In the Windows world
I'm rather tempted to buy a nice plotting OCX (like an X widget) and just
use that. Still, I'd much prefer a public domain system that worked across
platforms...
Here are my brief comments on the major packages out there, and why I don't
use them:
1) Narcisse - Cool package used somewhat at Livermore, not publicly
available.
2) Gist - Completely tied to Xlib. Requires patches to python interpreter
to use.
3) PGPlot - Basic code is FORTRAN. Not something I'd want to hack to get
working with Windows, and not something that most users of NumPy can be
expected to be able to even compile.
4) PLPlot - The best option I've seen, the basic distribution even comes
with a python module. It's driver model also looks good, I could easily
see adding Windows support. On the other hand, installation is really a
pain. I just spent 45 minutes trying to get it up and running under Sun
Solaris with no luck. I'm also unsure of whether or not it is missing
important features that these other packages have.
Am I missing any packages? Am I wrong in my comments about any of these?
It sounds to me like the Astronomers among us are only interested in
PGPlot. Is this for historical reasons, or are there some features in this
package that are not supported by the others?
I have no intention (or really ability) to legislate a single plotting
package for NumPy. Nonetheless, I'd be happiest if there could be a
consensus on a good system for general use. I'd even be willing to write
the interface code to such a system to help get things off on the right
track.
Looking for opinions - Jim
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