Johan Sundström wrote:
> On 1/6/07, Stefano Mazzocchi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> A few weeks ago, we reached the limit of how many 'datapoints' ploticus
>> can handle and we had to turn off the plotting stage... meaning that the
>> data is being updated, but the plots are not (they are lagging behind).
> 
> Curiosity query: in which way did you hit the roof? It does not strike
> me as a tool that should be much harder to make scale than, say,
> rrdtool, which handles impressive data sets beautifully. I'm

I believe Ploticus simply has a hard limit on the number of datapoints 
it can plot in one go.

As I'm sure you're aware (but just for the sake of anyone who doesn't), 
the main gain of rrdtool is its constant use of space by filling and 
re-filling its data archive in a 'round robin' manner - so I'm not sure 
in what sense you're referring to 'scale' for it.  In one sense, it 
intentionally doesn't scale.  Perhaps you're referring to the size of 
the archive it can handle?

> interested, not for challenging the statement, but on grounds of being
> able to change that, or understanding the situation enough to get a
> clear picture of whether it would even be a good idea in the first
> place.

(and I hope my reply is taken in the same light).

>> So now I wonder: should we incorporate time series plotting into
>> Timeline or write something else entirely?
> 
> I'm somewhat biased towards growing these things into Exhibit rather
> than Timeline, but that might be exploding scope? IMO, as long as user
> interface concerns are not compromised, usefulness grows with your
> options to operate on data, filtering, resorting, reconnecting and
> situating data sets.

I'm all for a more general plotting tool that could be used as a view on 
Exhibit.  I know there are ways it would make my life immediately easier 
(e.g., making this [1] a running graph instead of an annual production), 
and being able to plot data could be a serious win for those who are 
sharing it.

1. http://ryanlee.org/journal/view/5163/ "Personal Spam Report 2006"

>> And if we incorporate it, how? and what technology should we use? flash,
>> canvas, svg, java?
> 
> The lighter-weight for end users, the better. I'd preference-rank the
> above (first most preferred) svg, canvas, flash, java, svg winning
> with a very small margin over canvas for being reactive to model /
> view / controller style programming on a technical level, where canvas
> is more of a throw-away etch-a-sketch surface.

I probably wouldn't go with SVG.  Flash, much as I don't like it, feels 
like it's a better dynamic tool for sharing, especially if the data is 
made available next to the... flashlet (or whatever you call it).  But I 
don't know how well it does with math, like finding linear regressions 
or actively changing bin sizes for a histogram.  Java's next.

>> And what features should we have? I think some sort of zooming is a must
>> as plots tend to exhibit different features on different scales... how
>> about toggling between linear and logarithmic scales?

Depending on the technology, exporting a static result of dynamic 
control fiddling.

-- 
Ryan Lee                  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MIT CSAIL Research Staff  +1.617.253.5327
http://simile.mit.edu/
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