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Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

plottablejs.org

31–40 of 90 posts

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#31

This is definitely the best charting library I've worked with so far, mostly because of its flexibility. However, being afraid that I'm not aware of some other, maybe more powerful, libraries out there, I'm asking here are there good alternatives? Also, there were some rumors lately regarding the layoffs in Palantir, which makes me worry about the future of the project.

We use http://metricsgraphicsjs.org/, built on top of D3, by engineers working at Mozilla.

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#33
post #20
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would honestly say that D3.js is the most flexible and powerful charting library I've ever used.

D3 is a framework rather, it requires tremendous amounts of work to be able to create interactive charts.

Agreed that it's a framework, but it's not necessarily that much work, it really depends on what you're trying to do. Sometimes its easier just to use a library if it offers what you needs, other times its easier to use D3 directly -- knowing when to make that call is important.

There a good O'Reilly book on D3 by Scott Murray, the ebook version of which is free that's a great primer:

http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1230000000345/index.ht...

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#34

Can someone give some reasons why I might choose to use this or any other JS charting library over Google charts?

I can say why I would use it, I don't know that I can answer why you might. I would this because I love D3. I also don't have time to write a lot of it. D3 can be expensive for basic charts to the point where you'd be foolish to use it. D3 is great for complex data visualizations where the expense is an investment that will pay you back in higher performance and higher flexibility.

For me, I can use plottable and then make the charts my own with raw D3.

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#35
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would look at Flot, it's just 1 file (plugins are additional files) and very simple to use. http://www.flotcharts.org/

I wouldn't. While it still works (and I use it in a project of mine), the last commit is two years old and there are more and more open issues. It's a dead project.

On the other hand, using the flavour-of-the month JS shiny thing until the CADTs jump ship is also burdensome. There is a lot to be said for stable libraries, let-alone stable ecosystems.

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#36
post #20
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would honestly say that D3.js is the most flexible and powerful charting library I've ever used.

D3 is a framework rather, it requires tremendous amounts of work to be able to create interactive charts.

In my use-cases, it doesn't take much work at all. That said, it took me a fair amount of time learning enough about it (D3) for that to be true.

I think we'd probably both agree what if someone just wanted to build one (simple) interactive chart and then be done, D3 is probably not a good first choice.

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#37

Comparing their Finance demo [1] to the HighStocks equivalent [2]. It comes in at nearly twice the lines of code for significantly less functionality. Obviously there's a difference in approach here - HighStocks comes with lots of sensible default options where as Plottable.js seems to require more explicit configuration. And Highcharts is a commercial product whereas Plottable is free. For me though Highcharts/Highs…

Agree. Highcharts is well worth the license fee to me.

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#38
post #7

Can someone enlighten me on why they're doing two declarations, one empty returning `this` and the other, implemented, returning `any`? public connectorsEnabled(enabled: boolean): this; public connectorsEnabled(enabled?: boolean): any { if (enabled == null) { return this._connectorsEnabled; } this._connectorsEnabled = enabled; return this; } https://github.com/palantir/plottable/blob/develop/src/plots...

x.connectorsEnabled() on line 24 is a getter, returning the boolean. x.connectorsEnabled(boolean) on line 31 is a setter, return `this` for the benefit of method chaining. That then leaves the actual definition which goes through to the JavaScript: it has an optional argument to satisfy both plausible signatures and starts on line 32. In short, the first two are basically hints for TypeScript (if the signature is suc…

It feels complicated due to not using separate getter and setter functions. By splitting it into two functions the annotations could be reduced as well. I wonder what the reason for not taking that approach was.

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#39
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would look at Flot, it's just 1 file (plugins are additional files) and very simple to use. http://www.flotcharts.org/

I wouldn't. While it still works (and I use it in a project of mine), the last commit is two years old and there are more and more open issues. It's a dead project.

IMHO that's a good thing. It's not changing, works very well, has lots of plugins and is a relatively small library so you can fix it yourself. Plus a large user base, so many problems you run into are already known.

Re: Plottable.js – Flexible, interactive charts for the web

#40
post #35
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't. While it still works (and I use it in a project of mine), the last commit is two years old and there are more and more open issues. It's a dead project.

On the other hand, using the flavour-of-the month JS shiny thing until the CADTs jump ship is also burdensome. There is a lot to be said for stable libraries, let-alone stable ecosystems.

Totally agree. But there is a difference between stable and dead. Bugfixes matter. Taking care of issues would mean that things like "FF 51 breaks the tooltips" (fictional example) gets discovered and fixed. And one or two improvements a years also don't hurt.
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