On 2011-03-30 20:08+0200 Mark Fink wrote: > Hi there, > > since you mention "ultimate" and "cross-platform" in your claim I assume you > are already targeting node.js and the v8 engine as a > platform. > I would be interested in any attempt past or ongoing to provide a Javascript > wrapper for your plotting tool. I guess I could personally > support such a initiative. It currently looks that I will have a student > working on that during this summer, too. > > In case it turns out that there is not such thing yet. I could need some > ideas from you experts on how to approach that topic. I noticed > that there are already many wrappers available and my first naive attempt > would be to port the Python wrapper to Javascript using py2js. > Maybe you would like to share some thoughts on that or already have a better > idea. >
Hi Mark: Thanks for your interest in PLplot. To answer your question about javascript bindings, you might want to consider using swig to generate the needed bindings. Currently we use swig with a lot of success to do this for Python, Java, Lua, and Octave. According to http://swig.org/compat.html#SupportedLanguages, javascript is also supported by swig so I would recommend evaluating that option, at least. I am unfamiliar with py2js. From what you say, that sounds like a possibility as well although that means your javascript wrapper will have a python dependency (not a problem on Linux, but we have found many Windows users are allergic to extra dependencies even if it is only a download and install away). There _might_ also be some inefficiencies introduced by going through python. Regardless of how you ultimately decide to implement the javascript bindings, we would be happy to accept your contribution under the terms of the LGPL. However, as a practical matter if you want to convince users to use your contribution and developers to contribute further to it, it is important to programme the 33 standard examples in javascript so we can do the fundamental test that your bindings are producing consistent results with our C library for those standard examples. Typically what bindings contributors do is contribute the bindings first, then contribute the standard examples one by one as time permits. As the standard examples reach some sort of critical mass proving your bindings are mostly working you will typically find others chipping in to help with the examples (assuming the javascript language is easy to pick up by looking at the subset of the examples that already has been donated.) No promises, of course, but that is the way it usually works unless the language is so exotic that it is tough to programme in it. Alan __________________________ Alan W. Irwin Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca). Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net). __________________________ Linux-powered Science __________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
