Re: [Matplotlib-users] Matplotlib history

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

Whoops, I hadn't realized I stumbled onto a clone of sourceforge (a
mirror?). Here is the real link:
http://sourceforge.net/p/matplotlib/mailman/message/188760/


On Sun, Aug 3, 2014 at 9:37 PM, Benjamin Root <ben...@ou...> wrote:

> For those interested, I have found the release announcement that
> introduced the jet colormap:
> http://ehc.ac/p/matplotlib/mailman/message/188760/ . We have someone
> named "Perry" to blame... :-P
>
> Ben Root
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 1, 2014 at 9:01 PM, Benjamin Root <ben...@ou...> wrote:
>
>> Just to keep my notes in one place... from Matplotlib's "Introduction"
>> page is prose that I assume was written by John:
>>
>> For years, I used to use MATLAB exclusively for data analysis and
>> visualization. MATLAB excels at making nice looking plots easy. When I
>> began working with EEG data, I found that I needed to write applications to
>> interact with my data, and developed and EEG analysis application in
>> MATLAB. As the application grew in complexity, interacting with databases,
>> http servers, manipulating complex data structures, I began to strain
>> against the limitations of MATLAB as a programming language, and decided to
>> start over in Python. Python more than makes up for all of MATLAB’s
>> deficiencies as a programming language, but I was having difficulty finding
>> a 2D plotting package (for 3D VTK <http://www.vtk.org/> more than
>> exceeds all of my needs).
>>
>> When I went searching for a Python plotting package, I had several
>> requirements:
>>
>>    - Plots should look great - publication quality. One important
>>    requirement for me is that the text looks good (antialiased, etc.)
>>    - Postscript output for inclusion with TeX documents
>>    - Embeddable in a graphical user interface for application development
>>    - Code should be easy enough that I can understand it and extend it
>>    - Making plots should be easy
>>
>> Finding no package that suited me just right, I did what any
>> self-respecting Python programmer would do: rolled up my sleeves and dived
>> in. Not having any real experience with computer graphics, I decided to
>> emulate MATLAB’s plotting capabilities because that is something MATLAB
>> does very well. This had the added advantage that many people have a lot of
>> MATLAB experience, and thus they can quickly get up to steam plotting in
>> python. From a developer’s perspective, having a fixed user interface (the
>> pylab interface) has been very useful, because the guts of the code base
>> can be redesigned without affecting user code.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 11:51 PM, Benjamin Root <ben...@ou...> wrote:
>>
>>> Fernando,
>>>
>>> This information is going to be the preface of my book on using
>>> matplotlib for making an interactive application (sorry, no IPython, the
>>> editor wanted to keep the scope tight). So, what I am looking for are some
>>> of the major interactive features (who supplied them, and their
>>> reasons/purpose). Also, how has interactive matplotlib supported uses "in
>>> the wild" such as the Mars Phoenix Lander and recently, the ISEE3 reboot
>>> project (that abandoned satellite that was recently revived by citizen
>>> scientists).
>>>
>>> Of, course, any insights to John's original needs/use cases in the early
>>> years would be very valuable as well. I could have sworn he has written
>>> such missives on the mailing lists, but I can't seem to find them.
>>>
>>> Cheers!
>>> Ben Root
>>> On Jul 30, 2014 11:21 PM, "Fernando Perez" <fpe...@gm...> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Ben,
>>>>
>>>> if by interactive plotting you refer to using it interactively via
>>>> ipython and other such systems, there's a good part of that history that is
>>>> spread somewhere between the early mpl and ipython archives AND John's and
>>>> my personal inboxes.
>>>>
>>>> A good chunk of that (not all, mind you, since many others contributed)
>>>> happened with John and I working on it, and sadly he's not with us and I
>>>> had a loss of my early email (anything older than 2005) when I left the
>>>> University of Colorado.
>>>>
>>>> I'd be happy to answer some questions if you have them, to the best of
>>>> my memory. Probably quicker over skype/phone, ping me directly (at my
>>>> Berkeley address) if you want.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>>
>>>> f
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 7:20 PM, Benjamin Root <ben...@ou...> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello all,
>>>>>
>>>>> I am trying to put together notes for a writeup on a short history of
>>>>> matplotlib (in particular, its uses for interactive plotting). I have John
>>>>> Hunter's SciPy 2012 Keynote, which helps, but I was hoping for some other
>>>>> sources.
>>>>>
>>>>> Unfortunately, searching for "matplotlib" and "history" gets me lots
>>>>> of results on our trials and tribulations with version control...
>>>>>
>>>>> Anybody have anything bookmarked?
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers!
>>>>> Ben Root
>>>>>
>>>>> P.S. - Yes... this is for a book. Stay tuned!
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Fernando Perez (@fperez_org; http://fperez.org)
>>>> fperez.net-at-gmail: mailing lists only (I ignore this when swamped!)
>>>> fernando.perez-at-berkeley: contact me here for any direct mail
>>>>
>>>
>>
>