From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/29576 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Wooten Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:22:12 -0700 Message-ID: <44C12964.9080303@trichotomic.net> References: <44C1071F.80300@trichotomic.net> <6faad9f00607211036v155d27bch8003d49d667d3075@mail.gmail.com> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1153509759 24122 80.91.229.2 (21 Jul 2006 19:22:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2006 19:22:39 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Fri Jul 21 21:22:37 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1G40a2-0007wq-Bd for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:22:34 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D9E7128BC; Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:22:34 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 31991-05; Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:22:28 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id DFCD31280C; Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:22:27 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 324E01280C for ; Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:22:23 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 31546-06 for ; Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:22:17 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from mail8.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail8.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.10]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with SMTP id 24D04127B0 for ; Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:22:14 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: (qmail 14319 invoked from network); 21 Jul 2006 19:22:12 -0000 Original-Received: from dsl081-031-027.sfo1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO [192.168.2.7]) ([64.81.31.27]) (envelope-sender ) by mail8.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 21 Jul 2006 19:22:12 -0000 User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 (Macintosh/20060516) Original-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users In-Reply-To: <6faad9f00607211036v155d27bch8003d49d667d3075@mail.gmail.com> X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.7 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:29576 Archived-At: Mojca Miklavec wrote: >> Thus I'm curious as to what others use... is R an efficient method to >> produce elegant charts? Is straight MetaPost preferable? >> > > With metapost you can surely achive most beautiful results and it is > not as difficult to learn as TeX-programming. Of course you might need > more time to draw what you need or to write your own set of macros, > but if you have high demands about quality this might be the way to > go. > > However, if you prefer doing it quicly using the existing tools (be > aware that you have to learn how to use those tools as well), R or > gnuplot might be an interesting choice. You'll be limited by the power > of those two tools, but in most cases they should suffice for the > normal usage. > > The gnuplot module is still in development (I've been just begging > Hans for help a few hours ago ;). Take a look at the demo section of > gnuplot (http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_4.1/) to see if it can > offer you what you want to do. In that case ask on the list again, > I'll give you further pointers how to use it with ConTeXt > (http://pub.mojca.org/gnuplot). > > But basically you can take any program to draw graphs and include the > resulting PDFs. I'm afraid that the macros from the paper which you > pointed to, use some PostScript code that cannot be handled as-is (you > need some conversion to PDF first) and I'm affraid that the effort put > into making it work woudn't pay off now that you have a great varienty > of other plotting programs, including metapost itself (esp. if the > package has never been released - you'll probably hardly get any > support for it). > > Mojca > Thanks very much for your reply. Your advice seems strong, and in truth I have been intrigued by MetaPost for many years. This certainly seems a valid excuse to delve into it ;) David