Comments on: Home-baked graphics http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics An amateur's outlook on computation and mathematics. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:10:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: 0x69 http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-3116 0x69 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:06:57 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-3116 Another option if you really want to control every pixel of graph - is to make PPM image file directly from LISP. PPM format is trivial and can be formated as ASCII text of RGB values: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netpbm_format#PPM_example The only problem i see here that ppm is not popular enough to be supported by browsers. But we can always use some graphics processing program (lets say GIMP) to convert PPM to PNG/JPG /other format. Another option if you really want to control every pixel of graph - is to make PPM image file directly from LISP. PPM format is trivial and can be formated as ASCII text of RGB values:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netpbm_format#PPM_example
The only problem i see here that ppm is not popular enough to be supported by browsers. But we can always use some graphics processing program (lets say GIMP) to convert PPM to PNG/JPG /other format.

]]> By: lode http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-3056 lode Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:33:49 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-3056 SVG is definitely worth it. Better still, you can write your data in XML and use an XSLT to transform that into SVG. SVG is definitely worth it. Better still, you can write your data in XML and use an XSLT to transform that into SVG.

]]> By: Andre http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2768 Andre Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:25:20 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2768 "But I think the commenters were really asking how I create the graphs rather than why they’re so elegant, and so I’m going to focus here on the practical programming problem." I'm interested in both aspects of your graphs. Could you make an article about the colors you use, etc? Thanks! “But I think the commenters were really asking how I create the graphs rather than why they’re so elegant, and so I’m going to focus here on the practical programming problem.”

I’m interested in both aspects of your graphs. Could you make an article about the colors you use, etc?

Thanks!

]]> By: Zach Beane http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2759 Zach Beane Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:14:12 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2759 You might enjoy my Common Lisp library Vecto, which is designed to mimic the PDF drawing model but output directly to a PNG. I use it all the time for scratch programs that produce charts or plots. For more a more elaborate use, see http://xach.com/moviecharts/ You might enjoy my Common Lisp library Vecto, which is designed to mimic the PDF drawing model but output directly to a PNG. I use it all the time for scratch programs that produce charts or plots. For more a more elaborate use, see http://xach.com/moviecharts/

]]> By: Simeon Pilgrim http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2752 Simeon Pilgrim Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:09:31 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2752 Making you WordPress theme wider in not that hard. It took me around a hour to find all the places. I even now have a post explaining how todo it. http://simeonpilgrim.com/blog/2010/04/02/how-to-make-your-wordpress-theme-wider/ Nice graphs by the way. Making you WordPress theme wider in not that hard. It took me around a hour to find all the places. I even now have a post explaining how todo it.

http://simeonpilgrim.com/blog/2010/04/02/how-to-make-your-wordpress-theme-wider/

Nice graphs by the way.

]]> By: Zvika http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2729 Zvika Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:57:04 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2729 What I meant was a larger image size (I guess resolution is an innacurate term). You could keep the images as is, but have them link to a larger image, so that when the user clicks on an image he will see a full-screen version. For example, this is more or less how images are handled in Wikipedia. What I meant was a larger image size (I guess resolution is an innacurate term). You could keep the images as is, but have them link to a larger image, so that when the user clicks on an image he will see a full-screen version. For example, this is more or less how images are handled in Wikipedia.

]]> By: crowther http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2693 crowther Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:53:09 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2693 All of this talk about SVG and so forth is beyond me, but I wanted to thank you for permitting yourself the immodesty of praising Fig. 1. Now that you've mentioned it, I can appreciate the putty-colored background and white grid lines and may try to imitate those in the future. On an unrelated note, I gave "Group Theory in the Bedroom" to a relative (a chemistry professor who likes math puzzles and such) a couple of years ago and he really liked it. Now I need to get him another present. Do you have any recommendations based on his enjoyment of that book? All of this talk about SVG and so forth is beyond me, but I wanted to thank you for permitting yourself the immodesty of praising Fig. 1. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I can appreciate the putty-colored background and white grid lines and may try to imitate those in the future.

On an unrelated note, I gave “Group Theory in the Bedroom” to a relative (a chemistry professor who likes math puzzles and such) a couple of years ago and he really liked it. Now I need to get him another present. Do you have any recommendations based on his enjoyment of that book?

]]> By: Nate http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2689 Nate Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:36:56 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2689 I wonder if the Processing language (processing.org) might be of interest to you. This is a language with many graphical conveniences that doesn't sacrifice control. When I first saw your graphics I thought they were created with Processing--it may be worth a look. I wonder if the Processing language (processing.org) might be of interest to you. This is a language with many graphical conveniences that doesn’t sacrifice control. When I first saw your graphics I thought they were created with Processing–it may be worth a look.

]]> By: Mark VandeWettering http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2686 Mark VandeWettering Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:33:24 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2686 A long time ago I learned enough PostScript to be dangerous, and about four or five times a year I find some reason to actually code up a diagram or graph using PostScript. I find ghostscript to be very good at converting PostScript to raster formats, for the web as well. The ability of GhostScript to read TrueType and PostScript fonts means that you can do some fun things, like typesetting checkerboard positions: <a href="http://brainwagon.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/board6.png" rel="nofollow">A checkerboard position from my checkers program Milhouse</a> A long time ago I learned enough PostScript to be dangerous, and about four or five times a year I find some reason to actually code up a diagram or graph using PostScript. I find ghostscript to be very good at converting PostScript to raster formats, for the web as well. The ability of GhostScript to read TrueType and PostScript fonts means that you can do some fun things, like typesetting checkerboard positions:

A checkerboard position from my checkers program Milhouse

]]> By: Marc http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2685 Marc Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:18:41 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2685 I'm currently learning Lisp. Any chance of getting a look at your code? I’m currently learning Lisp. Any chance of getting a look at your code?

]]> By: hyperkinetic http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2683 hyperkinetic Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:58:26 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2683 Ahhh, the MX-80. Fine printer. Ahhh, the MX-80. Fine printer.

]]> By: John Haugeland http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2682 John Haugeland Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:37:57 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2682 In my opinion, the modern dialect of PostScript - PDF - is the way to go. It provides all of the graphics primitives needed to do the work right, and it's very reliably viewed on a wide variety of platforms, as well as very readily brought to print in both POD and offset printing contexts, and most importantly, the de facto viewer is extremely reliable in terms of rendering what the file presents. The real problem with SVG is that it's hard to get clients to view it reliably. To that end, there are a lot of tools which convert from [html/xml]+css to PDF, and some of the better ones (my favorite is PrinceXML) can embed SVG, giving you the expressive notation of SVG with the reliable viewing target of PDF. Above and beyond that, it gives you the really quite nice pagination of CSS3 and the convenient framing of a full HTML+CSS3 implementation. It isn't free, but if you want to bail on PostScript, PDF is the place to go. It's PostScript 2 - it loses the programming language, but it's a direct descendant of the old post-compile format. Look at the specification some time. In my opinion, the modern dialect of PostScript - PDF - is the way to go. It provides all of the graphics primitives needed to do the work right, and it’s very reliably viewed on a wide variety of platforms, as well as very readily brought to print in both POD and offset printing contexts, and most importantly, the de facto viewer is extremely reliable in terms of rendering what the file presents.

The real problem with SVG is that it’s hard to get clients to view it reliably. To that end, there are a lot of tools which convert from [html/xml]+css to PDF, and some of the better ones (my favorite is PrinceXML) can embed SVG, giving you the expressive notation of SVG with the reliable viewing target of PDF. Above and beyond that, it gives you the really quite nice pagination of CSS3 and the convenient framing of a full HTML+CSS3 implementation.

It isn’t free, but if you want to bail on PostScript, PDF is the place to go. It’s PostScript 2 - it loses the programming language, but it’s a direct descendant of the old post-compile format. Look at the specification some time.

]]> By: Jos Hirth http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2681 Jos Hirth Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:19:25 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2681 I used SVG for some graphs. Here is some example: http://kaioa.com/b/0803/cat_capacity.svgz It's fairly compact. If you take a look at the response header you can see that it's only 3,422 bytes in size (thanks to gzip compression). It automatically adjusts to the size of the view-port and it works in any semi-recent (non-IE) browser. One interesting detail is that the graphs contain the raw unaltered data. E.g. "L 8,1614.482" means with an initial capacity of 8 characters it took 1614.482 msecs to run the benchmark. Also, I made my benchmarks output the path data directly. It's a very simple format. M = move to, L = line to, and X/Y pairs. "M 0,2130.2948 L 8,1614.482 L , ..." I only had to copy that stuff and paste it over in Inkscape's XML editor. At the end I flipped and scaled it by applying some matrix. I mean... I could have generated some CSV and then open it in Calc or Excel, but that's just too boring. ;) I used SVG for some graphs. Here is some example:

http://kaioa.com/b/0803/cat_capacity.svgz

It’s fairly compact. If you take a look at the response header you can see that it’s only 3,422 bytes in size (thanks to gzip compression). It automatically adjusts to the size of the view-port and it works in any semi-recent (non-IE) browser.

One interesting detail is that the graphs contain the raw unaltered data. E.g. “L 8,1614.482″ means with an initial capacity of 8 characters it took 1614.482 msecs to run the benchmark.

Also, I made my benchmarks output the path data directly. It’s a very simple format. M = move to, L = line to, and X/Y pairs.

“M 0,2130.2948 L 8,1614.482 L , …”

I only had to copy that stuff and paste it over in Inkscape’s XML editor. At the end I flipped and scaled it by applying some matrix.

I mean… I could have generated some CSV and then open it in Calc or Excel, but that’s just too boring. ;)

]]> By: klwe http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2680 klwe Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:38:32 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2680 SVG works everywhere except crappIE browsers. If you don't care about outdated tech, then there's no problem. SVG works everywhere except crappIE browsers. If you don’t care about outdated tech, then there’s no problem.

]]> By: Oni http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2679 Oni Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:12:33 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2679 I think that SVG is the right choice. Not because the format is good per se, but because it can be converted into whatever you want and it's quite easy to traverse it with any language (as long as there is a library that can navigate trough XML). I've used it extensively for my thesis. I then used a script that passed all text to LaTeX in order to take care of the typesetting (while the original image, with stripped text, was converted in pdf and placed as background). I think that SVG is the right choice. Not because the format is good per se, but because it can be converted into whatever you want and it’s quite easy to traverse it with any language (as long as there is a library that can navigate trough XML).

I’ve used it extensively for my thesis. I then used a script that passed all text to LaTeX in order to take care of the typesetting (while the original image, with stripped text, was converted in pdf and placed as background).

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