BYBLACK DUCK

Feature Preview: Language Graphs

By on March 22, 2007 in blog

We’re developing a series of interactive graphs to let you explore language trends. Our first graph shows commit activity over time.

More graphs are coming soon; we’d love your feedback on what you’d find most valuable on this thread.

About Robin Luckey

View all posts by Robin Luckey →
  • Kiba (Kiba)

    Can it not be in flash? Some people like me refuse to install propreitary flash player, and thus are stuck with subpar Free flash player.

  • jason (Jason Allen)

    hi Kiba,

    Yeah – we agree. We’re working on it right now.

  • jason (Jason Allen)

    Fyi – enjoy our new flash-less graphs!

  • JLP (Jure Repinc)

    Yeah Flash is also a problem for us on 64-bit platforms or some other platforms like BSD, Solaris … So it would realy be nice to get rid of Flash on the site.

  • jason (Jason Allen)

    Hi Jure,

    It turns out our flash solution is also a bandwidth hog. I am hoping to yank it out altogether very soon.

    -jay

  • syphax (syphax)

    The graphs look nice.

    On the general topic: Does anyone know of an open source chart package that is out-of-the-box interactive (i.e. lets you click on a data object to fire an event, have tooltips that show data values, etc.)? I’ve been looking, but haven’t found what I am looking for. Here’s a summary of what I’ve found so far (yes, it’s incomplete; suggestions welcome):

  • http://lucumr.pocoo.org/ mitsuhiko (Armin Ronacher)

    There are many char solutions. For example gnuplot. But I would use the canvas Tag for client side rendering. The google guys did a great job when porting that to IE 6 too.

    Here an example on the launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad/

  • syphax (syphax)

    Cheers, what I am specifically looking for is something web-based that allows interaction, so that if a user, say, clicks on a chart element, something happens (like a chart showing greater detail about the clicked-on element appears).

    While searching on canvas-based options, I came across PlotKit, which is not interactive but perhaps could be made so.

    TIBCO GI has what I am looking for, but I can’t use that framework for the project I am working on due to other reasons.

  • syphax (syphax)

    Update- looks like PlotKit can trap events right out of the box.

    So Armin, your mention of the canvas element was (indirectly) very helpful. Thanks.

  • prof_porridge (prof_porridge)

    Armin, the graph on that link you submitted doesn’t work in IE 7 (shows up blank) and, while it appears in Opera, the rest of the page is misaligned.

  • gebi (Michael Gebetsroither)

    PlotKit is really nice.
    Imho Plotr is also worth a look. It’s based uppon PlotKit and without Mochikit library dependency.

  • http://www.pobox.com/~doar mdoar (Matt Doar)

    Please (please) make sure that color is only an enhancement to the information, not necessary. Some of the colors don’t work well for red-green color blind people (at least 5% of your users). Basically, if the graph is still meaningful after you print it out on a black and white printer, you’re ok :-)