Re: [Plplot-devel] Is PLplot dead?

[Phil R. <p.d...@gm...>]

I still use plplot for all my plotting. But sadly I ran out of time to work on it as much as I used to. I would be very sad to see it die and I will continue to keep a copy up and running for my own needs, even if it isn't "official".

As a C++ coder I'm not sure I could ever even pretend to maintain the huge array of language front ends that plplot has. Even if I had the time.

I wonder how many people use the different language bindings and drivers.

Phil

Sent from Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>
________________________________
From: Jonathan Woithe <jw...@ju...>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2024 12:55:14 AM
To: Orion Poplawski <or...@nw...>
Cc: PLplot development list <Plp...@li...>
Subject: Re: [Plplot-devel] Is PLplot dead?

On Fri, Sep 13, 2024 at 09:49:56PM -0600, Orion Poplawski wrote:
> I haven't seen a post on this list from anyone other than me since August
> 2023.  Is it time to consider this project dead?

Speaking personally, I still have a number of applications which make use of
plplot.  Plplot provides a very capable plotting system, but I concede that
that in 2024 there are many alternatives.  This was not the case when plplot
was first conceived.  The language landscape has also shifted considerably
in the last decade; in data science for example, python has become
particularly popular.  I would be sad to see plplot maintenance stop.
However, I am not a core developer and have no right to demand that others
support a library just because I personally use it.  There is certainly less
data analysis software being written in C and C++ these days, which
naturally reduces the popularity of something like plplot.  This in turn
causes a shift in priorities amongst those who previously worked on plplot.

While I would like to see the ongoing maintenance of plplot, I totally
understand the core developers deem it to be no longer worthwhile.  In
today's software environment, it would be a justifiable position which I
would have no trouble accepting.

Regardless of what happens to plplot from here, I would like to express my
profound gratitude to all those who contributed to plplot over the years.
While I have by no means been a heavy user, plplot has been a very handy
tool to have at one's disposal and I have appreciated the work that's gone
into developing and maintaining it over the years.

Regards
  jonathan


_______________________________________________
Plplot-devel mailing list
Plp...@li...
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel