Re: new matlab features

[Paul Thomas]

Jonathan,

I do not dispute the octaviz is an excellent development.  I have used 
vtk with tcl/tk for one visualisation project and found it to be 
excellent.  I have no doubt that if another similar projet arises, I 
will give octaviz a try. However,  vtk is a monstrously large hammer for 
what are sometimes tiny wee nuts.  For the main part, calls like 
surf(x,y,z), followed by shading and colorbar produce all that one (that 
is to say, me, anyway!) wants.  The result can be easily exported, 
printed or combined in more complicated figures.  This, I think, is a 
not unreasonable ambition for octave to have comparable 2D and 3D 
graphics.  It is not a small project, as the several incomplete attempts 
indicate, and it might be the best course of action for those interested 
to help with the development of gnuplot.   Alternatively, to produce a 
bespoke product, somebody had better put together a design team and 
parcel out the work......

Paul Thomas

Jonathan Stickel wrote:

> Paul Thomas wrote:
> <snip>
>
> > Graphics and 3-D Visualization
> >
> > This, from my point of view and that of all my colleagues, is the 
> > true strength of Matlab, since version 11-ish.  Not only are the 
> > graphics good but the GUI is excellent.
>
> <snip>
>
> > 3] There is perhaps something symptomatic in the octave graphics 
> > list; an anouncement that "a handle graphics project has started" 
> > stopped the list in its tracks.....
>
>
> I see tremendous potential in the "octaviz" package that has been 
> recently started which wraps VTK into octave 
> (http://octaviz.sourceforge.net/).  In my switch from Matlab to open 
> source land, I had trouble finding something to make 3D scientific 
> plots comparable to Matlab.  In the end, I settled on VTK, so imagine 
> my excitement to hear of the possibility of using all of VTK from 
> within octave!  Unfortunately, I am having trouble compiling octaviz 
> and will wait for a later version (problem with cmake, I think).
>
> My point is this:  with gnuplot for 2D plotting and VTK for 3D 
> visualization, I don't see any lack in octave's graphics abilities.  
> It may not be as user friendly nor have the GUIs of Matlab, but it is 
> fully capable of producing publication quality figures.
>
> Jonathan