Re: [PyX-user] Things missing from PyX

[Joerg L. <jo...@us...>]

Hi Michael,

On 27.01.05, Michael Hagemann wrote:
> Ready made plot schemes would be a great help though.  Everytime I go
> back to producing a plot, I think about this.  I think about adding two
> (relatively thin) layers of abstraction:
> 
> 1) A "library" with at most 2 or three plotting functions, which produce
> plots with "sane defaults" (as default parameters and/or based on the
> data) and handle the already supported data formats.  Even not having to
> write the contructor and the "writeEPSfile" would be a help.
> 
> 2) A simple commandline tool, that supports very basic file "formats"
> (think columns of numbers, like gnuplot) and maybe even a "guess" mode
> based on the structure of the input.

Yes, why not. Sounds like a good idea.

> A "gallery" (everybody loves thumbnails ;) on the website could provide
> the starting point to quickly get an impression of your data the way you
> intend to (and maybe the way you know from other tools).
>
> This would also address several points that often pop up on this mailing
> list, by providing:
> 
> - A more comprehensive place to look for the "how do I..." things (think
>   of a generic set of examples)

This is what the example page really is about.

> - A more robust interface for the mundane everyday tasks.
> - A set of "unit tests" which might help to pinpoint and document the
>   changes in the underlying pyx layer.

There are in fact unit and functional tests, which certainly do not
cover all of PyX but at least help us when releasing a new version. Note
however that we still consider the interfaces of PyX to be in flux. This
may sometimes be annoying, but on the other hand guaranteeing backward
compatibility now would really harm the further development of PyX.
Still, there is a clear trend towards interface stabilisation in many
areas, so no need to panic :-)

> The backdraws, as I see them, are:
> 
> - Takes time and effort ;-)
> - My own (unfrequent) plotting needs don't typically fall into standard
>   patterns.  But even unwieldy (but easy made) plots would sometimes be
>   a big help.
> 
> However, if there's interest and input on this, I'd be interested in
> working on this.

I think something like this would be very suited as an external
contribution to PyX. Both because it doesn't require the full knowledge
of the PyX internals and also because it's probably good if somebody who
is not too biased by working years on PyX takes a look on this.

        Jörg