"for the ai era" == slop era
Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
51–60 of 81 posts
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#52[dead]
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#53Even in the Era AI, GGPlot's API is still the best charting API. The name "Grammar of Graphics" isn't just marketing, they literally sought to write a god damn grammar to was capable of expressing all possible qualitative graphics. They even wrote a book about how they went about it (not that it speaks to the quality of the API) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/0-387-28695-0 I actually stumbled upon this book w…
Well, for that hand-drawn charm if you're willing to use METAPOST there is:
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#54This needs a side-by-side config comparison with something like echarts config schema format. I really don't see the point. I'm 99% sure the verbosity required in the system prompt to teach non-M$ models this new ever-so-slightly-different-but-not-obviously-necessary chart def abstraction format, and the iterations required to get it right, will outweigh any supposed efficiency gains resulting from using it. Just sta…
Feels to me like a preexisting project that pivoted their marketing pitch to AI.
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#55"A Visualization Language for the AI Era", as a tagline, sounds weird.
I had the best success with popular and versatile packages like matplotlib and ggplot2 - even 1.5 ago (vide https://quesma.com/blog/which-chart-would-you-swipe-right/).
Now, frankly, my go-to visualization package is React, sometimes with a pinch of D3.js (e.g. https://p.migdal.pl/tree-of-tree/).
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#56Even in the Era AI, GGPlot's API is still the best charting API. The name "Grammar of Graphics" isn't just marketing, they literally sought to write a god damn grammar to was capable of expressing all possible qualitative graphics. They even wrote a book about how they went about it (not that it speaks to the quality of the API) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/0-387-28695-0 I actually stumbled upon this book w…
How would you quantify the magic of these older charts? What is it that makes them have charm and character?
I made this a while back never finished it, but it’s a slide show of the different styles of graphics the RBA used over time
https://x.com/Angus_KST/status/2057757395196293262/video/1?s...
It’s incomplete but it show cases some of what I mean. There’s just a lot more charm in these earlier graphics. I’m fairly certain they had to consider how the different colours of ink bleed on one another.
Like take 1978 for example, this might be some kind of highlighter ink, and when the colours over lap the grid they interact in ways most overlapping geometry don’t in charting libraries (but in CSS you can get a similar effect with mix-blend-mode: multiply)
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/annual-reports/rba/1978/...
If you go to page 159 of the most recent RBA report, you’ll see otherwise clean clear charts that do a good job of communicating the relevant information (perhaps that’s all there should do from such an institution), but it’s admittedly soulless compared to the charts from previous decades
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/annual-reports/rba/2025/...
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#57Even in the Era AI, GGPlot's API is still the best charting API. The name "Grammar of Graphics" isn't just marketing, they literally sought to write a god damn grammar to was capable of expressing all possible qualitative graphics. They even wrote a book about how they went about it (not that it speaks to the quality of the API) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/0-387-28695-0 I actually stumbled upon this book w…
> They even wrote a book about how they went about it (not that it speaks to the quality of the API) Wilkinson’s Grammar of Graphics inspired ggplot. The textbook doesn’t even mention ggplot. Shameless plug for my own GoG inspired DSL, Algraf: https://williamcotton.github.io/algraf/demos There’s a Minard plot in the demos!
nice, but did you expect it to not work on Safari (WASM fails)?
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#58Even in the Era AI, GGPlot's API is still the best charting API. The name "Grammar of Graphics" isn't just marketing, they literally sought to write a god damn grammar to was capable of expressing all possible qualitative graphics. They even wrote a book about how they went about it (not that it speaks to the quality of the API) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/0-387-28695-0 I actually stumbled upon this book w…
> They even wrote a book about how they went about it (not that it speaks to the quality of the API) Wilkinson’s Grammar of Graphics inspired ggplot. The textbook doesn’t even mention ggplot. Shameless plug for my own GoG inspired DSL, Algraf: https://williamcotton.github.io/algraf/demos There’s a Minard plot in the demos!
Oh… I assumed it was a further expansion of the ideas that with into ggplot as they all look like ggplot charts and ideas were identical
I wish I could edit my original comment to add this correction.
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They even wrote a book about how they went about it (not that it speaks to the quality of the API) Wilkinson’s Grammar of Graphics inspired ggplot. The textbook doesn’t even mention ggplot. Shameless plug for my own GoG inspired DSL, Algraf: https://williamcotton.github.io/algraf/demos There’s a Minard plot in the demos!
nice, but did you expect it to not work on Safari (WASM fails)?
Safari is my default browser and it seems to be working just fine!
Re: Flint: A Visualization Language for the AI Era
#60Every time I needed to do charts at work I had a conundrum. Libraries are aplenty but basically only plotly does everything, but it’s not the prettiest. I’d much rather developers contributed new features into existing libraries.
What does plotly do that other libraries don't ?