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Python Data Visualization 2018: Why So Many Libraries?

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Re: Python Data Visualization 2018: Why So Many Libraries?

#91

Python visualization needs a visionary like Hadley Wickham. Once you get used to the clarity of "Grammar of Graphics", every other plotting library feels like a clumsy tool. Also, people pointing out the diversity of needs behind the multiverse of plotting libraries in Python probably aren't aware of the large number of extensions built on top of ggplot2[1]. In python, they end up being completely new packages. 1. ht…

Plotnine is the good implementation of ggplot in python.

Re: Python Data Visualization 2018: Why So Many Libraries?

#92

I'm pretty good at Python and do most of my work in it nowadays, but if I need to make a data visualization, I still go to R just for ggplot2. Nothing currently in Python compares (not even the "ggplot2 port"), and it takes an order of magnitude longer to make a comparable viz.

Plotnine is the good port of ggplot.

Re: Python Data Visualization 2018: Why So Many Libraries?

#94

I would strongly recommend against anyone using Seaborn. I used it for charts in a paper recently, since it includes swarm plots. I hit a problem when overlaying certain types of plot on the same axes (I think it was swarm plots on top of box plots, so I could show every data point as well as the quartiles). The problem was that the data would end up shifted, so the x axis labels weren't correct, even though each plo…

Going to agree with the Seaborn guy here. While you qualify your stance with some diplomatic terms, it does come off as very aggressive. Adding polite statements to a rude letter doesn’t make it polite; and a provider of an open source maintainer doesn’t have do to anything for you. You call the software objectively wrong and are telling the author that his product is wrong when you really should be asking how to use it on stack overflow.

Seaborn is a really nice way to take off matplotlib overhead and make your non-seaborn plots look better too. I highly recommend it.

Re: Python Data Visualization 2018: Why So Many Libraries?

#95

I would strongly recommend against anyone using Seaborn. I used it for charts in a paper recently, since it includes swarm plots. I hit a problem when overlaying certain types of plot on the same axes (I think it was swarm plots on top of box plots, so I could show every data point as well as the quartiles). The problem was that the data would end up shifted, so the x axis labels weren't correct, even though each plo…

Going to agree with the Seaborn guy here. While you qualify your stance with some diplomatic terms, it does come off as very aggressive. Adding polite statements to a rude letter doesn’t make it polite; and a provider of an open source maintainer doesn’t have do to anything for you. You call the software objectively wrong and are telling the author that his product is wrong when you really should be asking how to use…

It doesn't come off as "very aggressive", it comes off as slightly annoyed at not being taken seriously and getting curt answers.

It's every open source author's right to be a jerk and blow off people asking for help! Blaming and patronising the problem reporter is not necessary.

Re: Python Data Visualization 2018: Why So Many Libraries?

#96

I would strongly recommend against anyone using Seaborn. I used it for charts in a paper recently, since it includes swarm plots. I hit a problem when overlaying certain types of plot on the same axes (I think it was swarm plots on top of box plots, so I could show every data point as well as the quartiles). The problem was that the data would end up shifted, so the x axis labels weren't correct, even though each plo…

Going to agree with the Seaborn guy here. While you qualify your stance with some diplomatic terms, it does come off as very aggressive. Adding polite statements to a rude letter doesn’t make it polite; and a provider of an open source maintainer doesn’t have do to anything for you. You call the software objectively wrong and are telling the author that his product is wrong when you really should be asking how to use…

I'm not sure I get this characterization of the exchange; the parent comment is a little curt in his third reply, but the original issue is very well-formulated and the Seaborn guy's replies are incomprehensible. After elaborating, the parent gets a little pedantic in trying to get the maintainer to respond with something other than a one-sentence dismissal, and although at that point the comment is a little hostile, it clearly isn't "an obnoxious rant" or "asking for free tech support". Relative to the number of stars the repository has, this exchange was probably one of the most user-hostile I've ever seen for a legitimate question on a bugtracker.

Re: Python Data Visualization 2018: Why So Many Libraries?

#97

I would strongly recommend against anyone using Seaborn. I used it for charts in a paper recently, since it includes swarm plots. I hit a problem when overlaying certain types of plot on the same axes (I think it was swarm plots on top of box plots, so I could show every data point as well as the quartiles). The problem was that the data would end up shifted, so the x axis labels weren't correct, even though each plo…

Going to agree with the Seaborn guy here. While you qualify your stance with some diplomatic terms, it does come off as very aggressive. Adding polite statements to a rude letter doesn’t make it polite; and a provider of an open source maintainer doesn’t have do to anything for you. You call the software objectively wrong and are telling the author that his product is wrong when you really should be asking how to use…

As I wrote in my above comment, and in the followup email I sent after the bug was locked, I got the graphs I needed for my paper after about 5 minutes playing with the axes. No StackOverflow needed.

My problem wasn't "I need these particular graphs to look right", my problem was "Using this library in a seemingly reasonable way can silently produce corrupt/misleading results". That's a problem for all potential new users, and hence why I decided to invest a bunch of time in narrowing it down, report and pursue it.

I also didn't call the software itself objectively wrong; only the decisions/execution trace which lead to the incorrect graphs:

"this script doesn't set any axis labels or ticks: those decisions are made by matplotlib and/or seaborn, and are objectively wrong in this situation, regardless of the algorithmic details of how they have been arrived at."

I wouldn't have minded if it were closed as unfixable or something, but it was instead mischaracterised:

"This is, in my opinion, a legitimate issue worthy of acknowledging (even if such acknowledgement takes the form of a "won't fix" closure)."

I wouldn't recommend Seaborn to anyone who wasn't prepared to manually cross-check all of the entries and statistics in the resulting plots.

Re: Python Data Visualization 2018: Why So Many Libraries?

#99

I think SQL can be used, so I just use SQLite for the data visualization. I wrote a extension to do so, but many thing it does not yet include. I think SQLite extensions for doing graphics will be good idea.

Can you elaborate on how exactly you're "using SQLite for data visualization?"
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