A small (or big) diversion

In the past year, I have been trying to argue on these pages that gnuplot has some advantages over many other plotting utilities. Ultimate control over graph properties, the simplicity of plotting, the ease of scripting. These are the strengths of gnuplot that spring to mind first. At least, to my mind. At the same time, I also have to admit that there are weaknesses. And these weaknesses all come down to the same deficiency: the lack of a certain modularity, both at the user level, and in the code. This makes expanding gnuplot extremely difficult, at times, impossible. At the user level, we have to use what we have, and there are not too many options when it comes to even such simply tasks as calculating the average of a data set. If something is not implemented in the code, the user is not "supposed" to use it. Now, in gnuplot 4.4, some of these problems can be overcome with some witty scripting, and mainly, abuse of procedures. If you want to see some nasty hacks, just skim through these pages. And these issues all become even more problematic, when it comes to trying to fix the problem at the developer's level. The code, as it is written now, does not support straightforward expansion, even implementing as simple things as, again, calculating the average of a data set are somewhat tricky. At yet another level, even if the code is fixed, the original gnuplot code is not published under GPL, therefore, changing it does not mean that the battle is won: one can't just take the code, modify it, and put it up on a web page.

These were the problems that I have realised in the past couple of years, and this is why I decided to re-think certain things, and start the development of a plotting utility. I wanted to keep what was good in gnuplot, but I wanted to right the wrongs. I was seriously pondering where and how to set out, when someone pointed out to me that I am not the first person, who faces the same dilemma, and that there is another project already underway. In fact, the other project was quite advanced, when I caught glimpse of it. And I have to say that what I saw was rather impressive. It impressed me, because its development is done along the lines that I mentioned above, it is thought-over well, and it is already quite mature. It can easily compete with gnuplot, for most things are already implemented, and it has the modularity that I missed so much. And it is under GPL, so you can do whatever you want. Well, almost.

With these remarks, I would like to call your attention to pyxplot. If you haven't seen it yet, please, visit the web site, and give it a try! Their main site is here, and you can find a number of very pleasing plots here. Most of your gnuplot scripts will work "out of the box", and those that won't, can be tweaked very easily. At the end of the pdf manual, you can find a discussion on what the differences between gnuplot and pyxplot are, and how you can make your scripts work. At the same time, enjoy the convenience of easy unit manipulations, data analysis, things like Fourier transforms and filtering, numerical integration and differentiation, the option for defining not only simple functions but procedures for your common tasks.

As a concluding remark, I would also like to announce a parallel blog of mine, pyxplot-tricks, where I will discuss how and what can be achieved in pyxplot. I will still try to keep gnuplot-tricks active, and I will certainly answer questions posted here.
Cheers,
Zoltán