On Mon, Dec 31, 2007 at 12:40:26AM +0100, Ondrej Certik wrote: > I think there should be just one 3D plotting > library in Python and imho matplotlib should do it. However, we need:
> * it should be pure python > * fast and interactive 3D stuff > * needs to work out of the box on linux, mac os x, windows (without > compilation) A long time ago I took a close look at adding powerful 3D features in gnuplot, namely povray exporting, but I found out that some core work was needed. What I think I learnt from this experience was that the core plotting engine couldn't share much code between the 2D and the 3D. I drew the conclusion that the 2D and 3D plotting packages should be different, eventhough, it might be interesting to connect together them as well as possible. I also think that code reuse is very important, and that I don't want to write a rendered. This is why I set up on the endeaviour of modifying Mayavi2 to make it pylab-like. Prabhu has opened to way to the use of Mayavi2 solely as a library, and together we have worked on an API with a familiar syntax, and a light UI. There has been much progress, as I illustrate on a blogpost: http://gael-varoquaux.info/blog/?p=3 This does not answer you problem, as two of you requirements are not satisfied (namely because of the use of VTK). I have the feeling that you are looking for something simpler than what we are building. However this does not mean we cannot work together to try to make the APIs as similar as possible, and to make it easy to replace one library with another. By the way, mayavi2's requirement list is heavy, we have been told this more than once, but I consider some dependencies (namely traits and friends) to be core technology that many other projects would gain to use, moreover they are easy to build (althought packaging with eggs tends to confuse people). On the contrary, I fully admit VTK is a heavy dependency and that it would be an interesting project for an alternate library to provide part of the features without this dependency. I just got a message from Michael McKerns saying that the DANSE project are also working on a pylab-like API to VTK. We are planning to try and coordinnate our APIs. OK, I really must go to sleep now. Gaël ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Matplotlib-devel mailing list Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel
