[SciPy-dev] gplt suggestion: initcmd

[Michael J Gruber]

Alan G Isaac venit, vidit, dixit 07/08/05 18:35:
> On Fri, 08 Jul 2005, Fernando Perez apparently wrote: 
> 
>>Any opinions? 
> 
> 
> A user's perspective:
> the current arrangement is confusing to new SciPy users.
> 
> When I started using SciPy, I naturally wanted to use
> what appeared to be the SciPy graphic packages.  As I
> quickly ran into their limitations, I was very frustrated
> until I learned that Matplotlib was the package of choice
> for SciPy users.
> 
> I now know this has been discussed many times, but 
> I strongly feel that new users will be better served if they 
> are strongly directed to Matplotlib and, better yet, if 
> Matplotlib is packaged with SciPy.

The same happened to me during my current project. Even though I
suggested a patch to gplt and applied it locally to make things work, I
have switched to mathplotlib meanwhile because of antialiasing, which is
worth the roughly factor 1.7 speed decrease.

I regularly use PyX for PS/PDF output. Unfortunately, for creating
movies the combo PyX/ghostscript is a severe performance bottle neck.

My suggestion: matplotlib, mayavi, PyX should be mentioned in the SciPy
doc at least on the same footing as gplt/xplt/plt, if not with
precedence. This should be reflected in the examples.

Michael