Dynamically Generating a Graph in Python

[Fernando Perez]

Ivan Herman wrote:

> If this is indeed what he means:-) I began to use PyChart last week:
> 
> http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Yasushi_Saito/pychart/
> 
> I is o.k. for relatively simple statistical charts, and may produce output in
> SVG, PS, PDF, PNG, and interactive X11 display

With all due respect for the author of this tool, I have a really hard time with
comments like this on his page:

Gnuplot.
A long-time favorite of researchers. But its output is not up to publishing
standard, in my opinion.

Gnuplot has been around for many years (I've used it since 1991), and its
postscript is extremely good.  Definitely far better than any of the examples
shown in the pychart page, all of which have that god-awful look of Excel cheap
charts.

In python, for the last few years I've been using (yes, for real research)
gnuplot with much success (with Gnuplot.py and the enhancements which ipython
ads), and right now I'm in the process of switching to matplotlib (and doing
much work so that ipython supports matplotlib for interactive work).  

IMHO, matplotlib has a very clean design which makes it a great tool to bet on
for the future, with very good functionality, high quality output, and is being
actively developed by a strong team (not just John Hunter, but also the good
folks from the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute).

Just my $.02,

f