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Pie chart? I have no idea how to interpret this... http://www.flickr.com/photos/amit-agarwal/3196386402/sizes/l/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/amit-agarwal/3196

Pie chart? I have no idea how to interpret this... http://www.flickr.com/photos/amit-agarwal/3196386402/sizes/l/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/amit-agarwal/3196386402/sizes/l...

kd0amg 16y ago
Note that I ripped an equal amount of commit messages per language so the results aren't based on how many projects there are per language. I like how he had to tweak the data collection process to make the visualization method fit.
- jamn 16y ago
  I wouldn't call it to 'tweak' the data collection. He is simply normalizing the results to ignore the differences in language distribution. This is normal and has nothing to do with how you choose to represent it. It would have been meaningless to show any graph or table saying 'Python has the most messages with profanity" if the amount of Python projects is 80% of all the projects out there.
  - waqf 16y ago
    He is right to normalize the results, but parent's point is that he is wrong to do that by modifying his data collection. He should just collect as many commit messages as possible, then divide the profanity count for each language by the commit message count. Because that has lower standard error [and no more bias] than what he did.
- masklinn 16y ago
  That's not the case, that's just his personal choice. He could just as well have gone with %age of swear words per commit which would have made the number of commits per language irrelevant (as long as that number was kept above statistical nonsense) and would have yield the same result.
- scott_s 16y ago
  That is not the case. He wanted to compare curse words across languages independent of language popularity. If he did not collect the same amount of data per language, then he would have two variables: number of curse words and number of commits. Then there would be the danger that a more popular language would have far more curse words simply because it has far more commits.
- albedoa 16y ago
  What are you talking about?
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
cookiecaper 16y ago
That flow chart there is helpful, thanks.
DanielStraight 16y ago
Pie charts have a lot of drawbacks, sure, but it's ridiculous that we're at the point now where the first (and highest rated) response to a pie chart is always a negative comment about pie charts, regardless how good or bad the pie chart is. This one in particular is very clear: C++, Ruby and Javascript have the most profanity. They're relatively equal to each other and collectively account for more than 50% of the swearing in commit messages. C is next, with significantly less swearing. C# and Java are roughly tied a bit below C. Python and PHP have, comparatively, almost no swearing. Was that really so hard? When the data is already subjective (what is and isn't a swear word) and intended almost solely for humor, do we really need more precision than a pie chart offers? It is at best hyperbolic and at worst dishonest to say you "have no idea" how to interpret this. You have an idea. You just don't have precision.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
  - baltcode 16y ago
    But he said he sampled equal number of commit messages from each language.
  - Symmetry 16y ago
    Ahem, "Note that I ripped an equal amount of commit messages per language". I do think this is a bad place for a pie graph, but your specific criticism here is misplaced.
    - Sandman 16y ago
      Yes, and? The amount of messages is equal, the amount of profanity per a set of commit messages (which is what is measured here) is not.
      - Tichy 16y ago
        What are you getting at?
ph0rque 16y ago
A good weekend project would be to take an existing graphing library and make a wizard for it that would create a correct type of graph based on the data and your stated intentions with the data, as shown in the flowchart above.
AndrewVos 16y ago
I added a pie chart :)
mnbvcxz 16y ago
Thanks for reminding me again why I don't bother reading these forums. One day I'll quit clicking links too.
jedsmith 16y ago
http://dropbox.jedsmith.org/graph.png http://dropbox.jedsmith.org/graph.png

Pie chart? I have no idea how to interpret this... http://www.flickr.com/photos/amit-agarwal/3196386402/sizes/l/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/amit-agarwal/3196386402/sizes/l...

kd0amg 16y ago

Note that I ripped an equal amount of commit messages per language so the results aren't based on how many projects there are per language. I like how he had to tweak the data collection process to make the visualization method fit.

jamn 16y ago
I wouldn't call it to 'tweak' the data collection. He is simply normalizing the results to ignore the differences in language distribution. This is normal and has nothing to do with how you choose to represent it. It would have been meaningless to show any graph or table saying 'Python has the most messages with profanity" if the amount of Python projects is 80% of all the projects out there.
- waqf 16y ago
  He is right to normalize the results, but parent's point is that he is wrong to do that by modifying his data collection. He should just collect as many commit messages as possible, then divide the profanity count for each language by the commit message count. Because that has lower standard error [and no more bias] than what he did.
masklinn 16y ago
That's not the case, that's just his personal choice. He could just as well have gone with %age of swear words per commit which would have made the number of commits per language irrelevant (as long as that number was kept above statistical nonsense) and would have yield the same result.
scott_s 16y ago
That is not the case. He wanted to compare curse words across languages independent of language popularity. If he did not collect the same amount of data per language, then he would have two variables: number of curse words and number of commits. Then there would be the danger that a more popular language would have far more curse words simply because it has far more commits.
albedoa 16y ago
What are you talking about?

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

cookiecaper 16y ago

That flow chart there is helpful, thanks.

DanielStraight 16y ago

Pie charts have a lot of drawbacks, sure, but it's ridiculous that we're at the point now where the first (and highest rated) response to a pie chart is always a negative comment about pie charts, regardless how good or bad the pie chart is. This one in particular is very clear: C++, Ruby and Javascript have the most profanity. They're relatively equal to each other and collectively account for more than 50% of the swearing in commit messages. C is next, with significantly less swearing. C# and Java are roughly tied a bit below C. Python and PHP have, comparatively, almost no swearing. Was that really so hard? When the data is already subjective (what is and isn't a swear word) and intended almost solely for humor, do we really need more precision than a pie chart offers? It is at best hyperbolic and at worst dishonest to say you "have no idea" how to interpret this. You have an idea. You just don't have precision.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
- baltcode 16y ago
  But he said he sampled equal number of commit messages from each language.
- Symmetry 16y ago
  Ahem, "Note that I ripped an equal amount of commit messages per language". I do think this is a bad place for a pie graph, but your specific criticism here is misplaced.
  - Sandman 16y ago
    Yes, and? The amount of messages is equal, the amount of profanity per a set of commit messages (which is what is measured here) is not.
    - Tichy 16y ago
      What are you getting at?

ph0rque 16y ago

A good weekend project would be to take an existing graphing library and make a wizard for it that would create a correct type of graph based on the data and your stated intentions with the data, as shown in the flowchart above.

AndrewVos 16y ago

I added a pie chart :)

mnbvcxz 16y ago

Thanks for reminding me again why I don't bother reading these forums. One day I'll quit clicking links too.

jedsmith 16y ago

http://dropbox.jedsmith.org/graph.png http://dropbox.jedsmith.org/graph.png