3 ms·

Composable, declarative data structures for building complex visualizations

92 points by williamstein 12y ago

danso 12y ago
This is very cool...I hate to say that I sometimes judge a library (at first, anyway) on the quality and depth of the documentation. However, I have one ignorant-sounding question to ask: is this library meant for general, run-of-the-mill visualizations, e.g. bar charts and scatter plots, or is it intended for visualizations for a specific domain (of which I'm not qualified for)...the mandelbrot example in the intro is cool (http://ioam.github.io/holoviews/index.html http://ioam.github.io/holoviews/index.html) but I can't tell if it's meant to be first-impression-eye-candy or it covers a visualization use-case that I've never had (which is very possible). I'm sold to the idea of this being a composable and declarative system for visualizations, even if I what I have in mind are simple visualizations...because declarative, simple compositions can easily be made into much deeper visualizations...basically, I'd be sold to anything that makes making small-multiple-charts as easy as ggplot2 does. The docs make use of a GridSpace layout, but they all involve bespoke designs and animations so that it's hard to see the core code needed to form the layout... So yes, I know having prosaic visualization examples can sometimes fail to excite people, but I think there are a lot of programmers who are excited enough by a good framework regardless of the visualizations :)
- pbowyer 12y ago
  > is this library meant for general, run-of-the-mill visualizations, e.g. bar charts and scatter plots, or is it intended for visualizations for a specific domain I'd say it's for a specific use-case: exploring problem domains and data where you need multiple related visualizations. I don't think it's trying to be a layout engine, so much as produce very good looking analysis charts. I could see myself using it for image analysis and exploring time-series data, and would have killed for a tool like this when I was in the lab.
jdherman 12y ago
Awesome, thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, how are the embedded widgets being handled? (something like https://jakevdp.github.io/blog/2013/12/05/static-interactive-widgets/ https://jakevdp.github.io/blog/2013/12/05/static-interactive...) ?

92 points by williamstein 12y ago

danso 12y ago

This is very cool...I hate to say that I sometimes judge a library (at first, anyway) on the quality and depth of the documentation. However, I have one ignorant-sounding question to ask: is this library meant for general, run-of-the-mill visualizations, e.g. bar charts and scatter plots, or is it intended for visualizations for a specific domain (of which I'm not qualified for)...the mandelbrot example in the intro is cool (http://ioam.github.io/holoviews/index.html http://ioam.github.io/holoviews/index.html) but I can't tell if it's meant to be first-impression-eye-candy or it covers a visualization use-case that I've never had (which is very possible). I'm sold to the idea of this being a composable and declarative system for visualizations, even if I what I have in mind are simple visualizations...because declarative, simple compositions can easily be made into much deeper visualizations...basically, I'd be sold to anything that makes making small-multiple-charts as easy as ggplot2 does. The docs make use of a GridSpace layout, but they all involve bespoke designs and animations so that it's hard to see the core code needed to form the layout... So yes, I know having prosaic visualization examples can sometimes fail to excite people, but I think there are a lot of programmers who are excited enough by a good framework regardless of the visualizations :)

pbowyer 12y ago
> is this library meant for general, run-of-the-mill visualizations, e.g. bar charts and scatter plots, or is it intended for visualizations for a specific domain I'd say it's for a specific use-case: exploring problem domains and data where you need multiple related visualizations. I don't think it's trying to be a layout engine, so much as produce very good looking analysis charts. I could see myself using it for image analysis and exploring time-series data, and would have killed for a tool like this when I was in the lab.

jdherman 12y ago

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, how are the embedded widgets being handled? (something like https://jakevdp.github.io/blog/2013/12/05/static-interactive-widgets/ https://jakevdp.github.io/blog/2013/12/05/static-interactive...) ?