Octave 3.0 plotting API/interface

[N Smethurst]

Hello everyone..

Le Samedi 22 Février 2003 14:43, Per Persson a écrit :
> I'd really like to see some kind of plotting API/abstract
> class/interface whatever that sits between octave and any present
> and/or future plotting solution.
> I know this has been dicussed before, but mostly in the context of GUIs
> and stuff. Certainly, it would be nice to have a similar solution for
> all kinds of fancy widgets but the plotting part could probably be done
> separately from buttons and sliders etc.

Although I'm new to the mailing list, I have been following the progress of
Octave for some years. I notice that there has been another dialog recently
on the subject of the future direction for an Octave plotting/visualization/
gui interface. I am currently in the middle of the design stage of a general
visualization plug-in program (using kde/vtk) which is intended to be used
in conjunction with numerical software. My interests lie mainly in the areas
of audio, acoustics, signal and image processing, so my own development
ideas will tend to be very general.

Before you all sign heavily and say "oh no, here's another stranger claiming
to be developing the visualization solution that's going to be the one to
use," I'd like to express one or two thoughts. Firstly, I wouldn't at all be
surprised if you are thinking that. There seems to have been so many people
who have come along with a similar story, only to disappear again after
pounding out some code that does half a job and then getting bored. Why
should I be any different?

Hence, secondly, I'm not going to begin suggesting that my currently
not-ready-for-use software is necesarily going to reach a stage where it is
of great use to anyone. Whether it turns out to be useful or not will only
be known in the future, so such talk is irrelevant in the present.

My interest here is to try to provoke an interesting, constructive and
hopefully fruitful discussion on the subjet of a common communication method
between Octave and plotting/visualization/gui software in general. At best,
such a method would be graphics package independant, allowing the user to
easily drop in whatever package she desires, knowing that all her old
scripts and functions will continue to run correctly with the new package
(assuming it conforms to the Octave specification). Any additional
functionality that a particular graphical package may provide could be
integrated with separate .oct files that belong to the package and have no
bearing on the core functionality of the Octave plotting/gui system.

It is clear that there are a number of independant projects in existence
that do interface or plan on interfacing with Octave, mine included. I would
like to suggest the possiblility that everyone who has an interest in the
development of a common Octave plotting/visualization/gui interface begin a
constructive and ongoing discussion on the octave-graphics mailing list.

Such a discussion and the hopefully subsequent interface development will
transcend any complication and potentially wasted effort if/when people
disappear after providing useful input. I have grand plans but am honest
enough to acknowledge the uncertainty of how far these plans will get.
However, if I or anyone else, before potentially disappearing (or not), can
be productive in the development of a common interface, the only possible
result of this will be very positive for the community.

Does anyone find this idea appealling?

Regards and hope to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Nicholas Smethurst