5 ms·

Why don't you have a Perl API?

zhemao 13y ago
Probably because they didn't think many people would use it and had limited man-hours to spare. But it would be nice if they released some language-agnostic API like a REST interface so that people could write bindings for their own languages. They must be using something like that internally anyway.
- cema 13y ago
  Yes, it would be helpful both for the customers (users, that is) and themselves too, as the potential number of users (and usages!) will grow.
- cparmer 13y ago
  Yeah, that's a great idea. We'll definitely check that out.
  - zhemao 13y ago
    Hey, that's great! And good work so far, by the way. This looks pretty cool.
  - zhemao 13y ago
    Also, are your existing libraries open source? If not, it might be a good idea to, after finishing the REST interface, refactor your libraries to use the REST interface and then release them as open source. That way people could contribute to them and see how to write their own.
cparmer 13y ago
We're focussing on the scientific-computation languages since those users are probably doing the most plotting on the day-to-day and are in most need of a better data collaboration tool. That being said, we'll add interfaces to other languages over time. Do you do a lot of plotting in Perl?
- Mithaldu 13y ago
  Not right now, but in the past i've worked on applications for plotting health-related data, activity of financial markets and created visualizations for bio-engineering researchers. Perl is one of the go-to languages for converting raw data into manager-friendly representations, has many tools for that already, and i'm sure many would be interested in adding another tool to their repertoire. Frankly, i find myself baffled that you'd think Perl is not a scientific-computation language, given the existence of BioPerl, PDL, GD::Graph and many other widely-used tools that relate to your field. If you'd agree to putting it on your API page, i'll happily do the needful and make a release to CPAN and port the examples you have there.
  - cparmer 13y ago
    Cool, that's really great feedback. I'm certainly more unfamiliar with the Perl community than with the other 3 languages, so thanks for sharing and offering your help!
    - Mithaldu 13y ago
      So, that doesn't answer the question. If i write the module and port the examples, will you put it on your website? (If you agree, giving me a github repo to make a pull req to, or an email to send the data to would help too.)
      - cparmer 13y ago
        I'll definitely place a Perl (and other language modules) on the API page! I think the best way to go about this is to write a REST api as @zhemao suggested. Feel free to email me at chris[at]plot.ly :)
        Mithaldu 13y ago
        Awesome, thanks for clarifying. For now i'll simply stick to porting the python library 1:1, to ensure the fastest turnaround. :)

Probably because they didn't think many people would use it and had limited man-hours to spare. But it would be nice if they released some language-agnostic API like a REST interface so that people could write bindings for their own languages. They must be using something like that internally anyway.

cema 13y ago
Yes, it would be helpful both for the customers (users, that is) and themselves too, as the potential number of users (and usages!) will grow.
cparmer 13y ago
Yeah, that's a great idea. We'll definitely check that out.
- zhemao 13y ago
  Hey, that's great! And good work so far, by the way. This looks pretty cool.
- zhemao 13y ago
  Also, are your existing libraries open source? If not, it might be a good idea to, after finishing the REST interface, refactor your libraries to use the REST interface and then release them as open source. That way people could contribute to them and see how to write their own.

cparmer 13y ago

We're focussing on the scientific-computation languages since those users are probably doing the most plotting on the day-to-day and are in most need of a better data collaboration tool. That being said, we'll add interfaces to other languages over time. Do you do a lot of plotting in Perl?

Mithaldu 13y ago
Not right now, but in the past i've worked on applications for plotting health-related data, activity of financial markets and created visualizations for bio-engineering researchers. Perl is one of the go-to languages for converting raw data into manager-friendly representations, has many tools for that already, and i'm sure many would be interested in adding another tool to their repertoire. Frankly, i find myself baffled that you'd think Perl is not a scientific-computation language, given the existence of BioPerl, PDL, GD::Graph and many other widely-used tools that relate to your field. If you'd agree to putting it on your API page, i'll happily do the needful and make a release to CPAN and port the examples you have there.
- cparmer 13y ago
  Cool, that's really great feedback. I'm certainly more unfamiliar with the Perl community than with the other 3 languages, so thanks for sharing and offering your help!
  - Mithaldu 13y ago
    So, that doesn't answer the question. If i write the module and port the examples, will you put it on your website? (If you agree, giving me a github repo to make a pull req to, or an email to send the data to would help too.)
    - cparmer 13y ago
      I'll definitely place a Perl (and other language modules) on the API page! I think the best way to go about this is to write a REST api as @zhemao suggested. Feel free to email me at chris[at]plot.ly :)
      - Mithaldu 13y ago
        Awesome, thanks for clarifying. For now i'll simply stick to porting the python library 1:1, to ensure the fastest turnaround. :)