Advice on module for plotting graphs

[Vicky Conlan]

I'm currently writing a small system to automate a process of
"cut+paste into excel, output as a graph" someone is currently
having to do. Importing and munging the data I'm happy* with,
creating a graph I have absolutely no experience of.

I've had a look around CPAN, but there appear to be a million
and one modules that may do what I'm looking for, does anyone
have any experience (good or bad) or advice on which direction
to go?

(One option is always to output excel-importable data and then
carry on using excel to create the graphs, but that's not really
very nice)

Given I don't think gnuplot is available, I'm currently looking
at SVG::Graph, but if there was something available that came
bundled with the standard distribution, that would probably win
the convenience vote.

Any hints and advice appreciated.

--

 

[Ben Morrow]

Quoth (e-mail address removed) (Vicky Conlan):

I'm currently writing a small system to automate a process of
"cut+paste into excel, output as a graph" someone is currently
having to do. Importing and munging the data I'm happy* with,
creating a graph I have absolutely no experience of.

I've had a look around CPAN, but there appear to be a million
and one modules that may do what I'm looking for, does anyone
have any experience (good or bad) or advice on which direction
to go?

If you're on Win32 and have Excel, you can use Win32::OLE to
remote-control Excel into producing the graph for you. If you record a
macro in Excel that does what you want and then examine the VB code it
generates, it's usually trivial to convert that into Perl.

Ben

 

[Vicky Conlan]

If you're on Win32 and have Excel, you can use Win32::OLE to
remote-control Excel into producing the graph for you. If you record a
macro in Excel that does what you want and then examine the VB code it
generates, it's usually trivial to convert that into Perl.

I'm not on Win32, if I was going to go the excel route, it would involve
outputting the data to a solaris machine then importing it via (some
other method). That would be the backup method if I couldn't find a
better solution. I'd rather have a Perl module that outputs pretty
graphs as gifs (or something similar).
--

 

[Jim Gibson]

I'm currently writing a small system to automate a process of
"cut+paste into excel, output as a graph" someone is currently
having to do. Importing and munging the data I'm happy* with,
creating a graph I have absolutely no experience of.

I've had a look around CPAN, but there appear to be a million
and one modules that may do what I'm looking for, does anyone
have any experience (good or bad) or advice on which direction
to go?

(One option is always to output excel-importable data and then
carry on using excel to create the graphs, but that's not really
very nice)

Given I don't think gnuplot is available, I'm currently looking
at SVG::Graph, but if there was something available that came
bundled with the standard distribution, that would probably win
the convenience vote.

What platform are you on? Why do you think gnuplot is not available?
Gnuplot would be my recommended approach. It is available as source and
supports many platforms. I have used on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX.

 

[Vicky Conlan]

What platform are you on?
Solaris.

Why do you think gnuplot is not available?

Because it's not installed on the machine I am developing on (definitely), I'm
about 99% sure it's not available on the machine it would eventually run on,
and getting things installed introduces an extra level of hassle.

Gnuplot would be my recommended approach. It is available as source and
supports many platforms. I have used on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX.

It does have one extra advantage, in that I've used it before (although not via
Perl, but that shouldn't matter too much). Hmm. I'll see about getting it
installed (I can do it myself for development, but if I do that and then get
the knock back for having it installed on production, that's going to be a bit
of a spanner in the works!), but would still welcome suggestions for alternatives


--

 

[Martien Verbruggen]

I'm currently writing a small system to automate a process of
"cut+paste into excel, output as a graph" someone is currently
having to do. Importing and munging the data I'm happy* with,
creating a graph I have absolutely no experience of.

It depends a bit on what sorts of charts you want to create (what's on
the X and Y axes?). I use GD::Graph a lot, but that's probably because I
wrote it. It only really does business-style charts.

The Chart distribution is quite complete and works well.

I also use gnuplot a lot for those areas where GD::Graph doesn't work,
like 3D plots, function plotting, etc. Interfacing with gnuplot is not
hard.


Martien

 

[Vicky Conlan]

It depends a bit on what sorts of charts you want to create (what's on
the X and Y axes?). I use GD::Graph a lot, but that's probably because I
wrote it. It only really does business-style charts.

I'll take a look. Could be handy having the author at hand. ;-)
At the moment, "simple" graphs would probably do, but I get the
feeling that the requirements may be subject to ... expansion some
time in the future.

The Chart distribution is quite complete and works well.

I also use gnuplot a lot for those areas where GD::Graph doesn't work,
like 3D plots, function plotting, etc. Interfacing with gnuplot is not
hard.

Ah, but interfacing with gnuplot /is/ hard if I can't get gnuplot
installed on the machine it needs to run on.

Having used both, how tricky would you expect it to be if I wrote with
GD::Graph in mind, then had to switch to a gnuplot option at a later
date? (ie, are the interfaces similar enough to make it a simple switch,
or a significant re-write?)

--

 

[xhoster]

According to <[email protected]>:

Ah, but interfacing with gnuplot /is/ hard if I can't get gnuplot
installed on the machine it needs to run on.

If you can't get gnuplot installed, you very likely won't be able to get
GD installed either. Incompetent IT is hard to circumvent.

Xho

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[Martien Verbruggen]

Ah, but interfacing with gnuplot /is/ hard if I can't get gnuplot
installed on the machine it needs to run on.

Having used both, how tricky would you expect it to be if I wrote with
GD::Graph in mind, then had to switch to a gnuplot option at a later
date? (ie, are the interfaces similar enough to make it a simple switch,
or a significant re-write?)

Switching from GD::Graph to gnuplot is a big change, and would probably
require a rewrite of almost everything. The Chart modules, I believe,
have an interface that is compatible with GD::Graph's, but i mist say, i
haven't used them for a while, so i am not too sure how much work there
is, or how many more features they have than GD::Graph, nowadays.

Martien

 

[Vicky Conlan]

Switching from GD::Graph to gnuplot is a big change, and would probably
require a rewrite of almost everything. The Chart modules, I believe,

Hmm, that's what I was afraid of. Bugger.

Ok, thank you to everyone for the advice. I have already put in an
enquiry about the chance of getting gnuplot installed, it's probably
the best option ... I can see a lot of the rest of the week spent
chasing it up. I hate this bit of my job.

--

 

[A. Sinan Unur]

(e-mail address removed) (Vicky Conlan) wrote in @magenta.plig.net:

Hmm, that's what I was afraid of. Bugger.

Ok, thank you to everyone for the advice. I have already put in an
enquiry about the chance of getting gnuplot installed, it's probably
the best option ... I can see a lot of the rest of the week spent
chasing it up. I hate this bit of my job.

Have you looked into Google's chart API?

My guess is, you could drive it using LWP.

Sinan

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A. Sinan Unur <[email protected]>
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