Re: graphics

[Ben Pfaff]

John Darrington <address@hidden> writes:

> On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 07:01:29PM -0700, Ben Pfaff wrote:
>      
>      I also think that this is a good direction to look into, but
>      unfortunately I think that the first step we will have to take is
>      to get competent legal advice.  Witness:
>      
>              http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT7023453
>              http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT7176924
>      
>      Both of these are patents titled "A computer method, apparatus
>      and storage medium is provided for creating quantitative
>      aesthetic graphics from data," inventor L. Wilkinson, assigned to
>      SPSS Inc.
>
> Hmm Yes.  Perhaps then it's better if we don't read this book, least
> it subconciously influences the code.

Here's a PhD thesis that I was reading earlier today, which
proposes something related (the Wilkinson book is cited in
related work), but Stolte, the author, at least, claims it is
superior for various reasons:
        http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/cstolte_thesis/

And here's an earlier paper about the same system, which is much
shorter and therefore easier to read:
        http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/polaris_extended/

My goal in looking this up earlier today was to find a
general-purpose way to describe how to convert data into pivot
tables.  The Stolte approach can actually describe both tables
and graphs, which is a bonus over what I was searching for.  I am
not sure that the Wilkinson approach can describe tables; I
haven't read it.

I'm going to read the full Stolte paper or thesis when I get a
chance.  Thus far, I've barely skimmed it.
-- 
Ben Pfaff 
http://benpfaff.org