Re: plotting library

I am cc'ing this to lush-devel, perhaps others have good
ideas or pointers with regards to plotting as well.

On Thu, 18 Oct 2007, Raymond Martin wrote:

>> Ralf basically wrote:
>>
>> After using Lush & gnuplot for a while I would like to write
>> a plotting library for (PSU-)Lush and use gnuplot as backend.
>> Do you know of a good plotting library out there that I may
>> use as a model?
>
> [...]
> I do not do much in the way of plotting, although I have been
> well exposed to many plots/graphs of data in my scientific
> background.
>
> As for graph libs, there are many choices.
> 
> Firstly, did you know that GNU Octave uses Gnuplot as its backend?

Yes. And Octave basically implements the Matlab plotting API
and uses gnuplot as backend. As an ex-Matlab user I am 
familiar with the Matlab plotting. I think it is pretty good
for interactive use in the Matlab shell. But it is stateful
(relies on side effects) and each plotting command takes a lots
of options by which one alters the appearance of plots.

I would like to find a plotting API which separates the
"what" (what kind of plot) from the "how" (appearance). I
believe that would make it easier to compose complex plotting
functions from simpler ones. But such an API could be a pain
in the but for interactive use. Perhaps one actually needs two
APIs for the different purposes...

Thanks for other the pointers!
Ralf




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