[IPOL discuss] matplotlib? [Re: courve 1D ...]

[Miguel Colom]

> As long as there is someone to provide this maintenance service.
A sensible policy would be that when someone creates a new tools or
feature, he/she becomes the responsible for it.

For example, I created the plotting script, so I can be responsible for it.

> No, gnuplot comes with a "nox" command-line only version.
> -> http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/gnuplot-nox

You're right. It's less dependencies than matplotlib:

gnuplot-nox
  Depende: libc6 (>= 2.11)
  Depende: libcairo2 (>= 1.2.4)
  Depende: libedit2 (>= 2.11-20080614-1)
  Depende: libgd2-noxpm (>= 2.0.36~rc1~dfsg)
  Depende: libgd2-xpm (>= 2.0.36~rc1~dfsg)
  Depende: libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0)
  Depende: libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0)

> Lots of packages are installed on the dev server, for
> experimentation. Only the minimum is on the demo server.
>
> Collect the point coordinates, draw lines with PIL, you have the
> curve. It is boring, the curve will not be pretty and have
> coordinates, legends, and so on but it works and doesn't require a
> gazillion of libraries to draw a curve.

Well, it's a different point of view.
There're two:

- Nicola's way: minimal system with minimal dependencies. "Do it
yourself", if you need something the server doesn't suppport. Drawback:
perhaps you have to re-invent the wheel many times and the results are
poor. Advantage: a minimal system is easier to maintain.

- Miguel's way: install all needed dependencies, even if only a part of
their capabilities is used. Drawbacks: the servers takes more time to
update all its packages. Advantage: versatile graphics. Script easy to
modify and expand to new functionality.

In short: I prefer the machines do the work, instead of humans*!
*(us)