[MATRIX-SIG] ANNOUNCE: PLOT-SIG has been created

[David Ascher]

Thanks to Barry Warsaw and Ken Manheimer, the PLOT-SIG has been created
(it even has a web page, with little information on it for now).  I am the
maintainer of the SIG.

The informational message describing the SIG's purpose is appended to this
post.

Send subscription messages to plot-sig-request@python.org 

I would suggest that folks save their 'contentful' messages until a fair
number of people have had a chance to subscribe.  When you do subscribe,
feel free to check the archive at

	http://www.python.org/sigs/plot-sig/archive

to see if you've missed anything (I'm guessing the findmail.com archive
will take a little while to start up). 

--david ascher  -- plotting to take over the world of plots.  

<----------------------------------------------------------------------->

PLOT-SIG, a Special Interest Group on Data Plotting Solutions for Python

The purpose of this list is to develop, coddle together, adopt or
otherwise make available Python tools for plotting of scientific and
business plots of data.

Plotting needs vary greatly depending on each user's requirements;
some users wish to see a better API between Python and existing
plotting libraries or programs.  Others would rather see a new
framework which maximally leverages the OOP and dynamic strengths of
Python, at the cost of reinventing a few wheels.  Both strategies will
be entertained by the SIG, with individual members contributing to
projects they wish to see furthered.

Principles guiding the development of all software will include:

  * Ease of use.
  * Integration with other Python packages (NumPy, PIL, etc.).
  * Quality of the software.
  * Quality of the output.

One possible goal for the API project is to develop a package-
independent API for plots, which would produce reasonably similar
results regardless of the plotting package used as a backend (PLPlot,
Gist/Yorick, Gnuplot, etc.), in the same spirit as the interface
defined by the DB-SIG.  Package-specific extensions could naturally be
provided as well.

The goals for the new framework need to be further specified by the
SIG, but include:

  * Complete Python Control.
  * Extensibility/Customizability.
  * High quality rendering both on screen and paper.
  * Portability (at least UNIX/X11 and Win32, MacOS if feasible). 
  * Stealing good ideas others have had.
  * Interactivity

Membership is expected to include folks who wish to contribute to the
development efforts, folks who have lots of expertise they wish to
share, and novice users who wish to share their lists of requirements,
questions about the available software, etc.

About this list: Additions and deletions are all automated via
Majordomo.  For details, send the word `help' in the body of a mail
message to the Administrivia address given below.  The subscription
policy is `open', meaning you can add or delete yourself at any time,
but you cannot add or delete anyone else without approval.

This list is unmoderated and unrestricted.  This means that anybody
can post messages to the list.  Messages are archived and available
for download, as are perhaps other useful files.  For details, send
the word `index' in the body of a message to the Administrivia
address.

Post messages to the everyone on the list by using the List address.

If you absolutely must to contact a human being, use the Owner
address.

==========================================
List address:  plot-sig@python.org

Administrivia: plot-sig-request@python.org

Owner:         plot-sig-owner@python.org
==========================================


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