Re: ePiX GUI

[Andrew Sterian <steriana@claymore.engineer.gvsu.edu>]

Andrew D. Hwang wrote:
> The fact that ePiX is a library lends itself to a window interface that
> calls library functions and writes their output to a specified file (i.e.,
> to writing a graphical front end for eepic:)

I would suggest using Pyepix to leverage existing windowing toolkits
for Python (wxWindows, Tk, PyFLTK) to quickly put together a front end
for ePiX. Although I'm with Andy on this one...I don't see the need for
a GUI.

And don't look at me...I hate writing GUI's :-(

> A bit of a tangent: Has anyone used gnuplot extensively, and if so, what
> are its strengths and deficiencies? Is there anything resembling a GUI?
> Many people on comp.text.tex mention gnuplot when the subject of graphing
> comes up, but I never had a good experience with it (nor, to be fair, a
> truly bad experience, just a few annoying encounters).

I use gnuplot occasionally. I have found it somewhat difficult to master,
mostly because the "gems" that are built-in are pretty hard to uncover.
The nice thing about gnuplot is that handles the data-vector plotting
tasks that ePiX isn't really meant to handle well. You can get some very
nice-looking plots out if you're willing to put in the work. And it can
all be done from script files so you can tweak the files a little at a
time and quickly experiment. It will even do on-the-fly function plotting
so you don't have to create a vector of data first.

Gnuplot still does not hold a candle to professional programs like MATLAB,
which unfortunately cost a fair amount of money.

As far as a gnuplot GUI, if it has one, I haven't come across it.

So I use....

...MATLAB for complicated plots that require things like shading,
viewpoints, contours, surfaces (all based on matrices of data,
not equations)

...gnuplot for 2-D plots, especially as a back-end filter for other
programs (it works well with pipes), or when I don't want to wait
for MATLAB to load and occupy half my memory :-(

...ePiX for plots based on equations or parametric placement of 
components, or when I want to easily embed LaTeX equations/symbols
into the figure. MATLAB is not very good for this (it has some
TeX symbols, but not fractions, for example) and gnuplot isn't great
either (but this may be a "gem" I haven't discovered yet).

I've used xfig quite a bit (mostly replaced by ePiX now) and
have dabbled with tgif. I'd like to dabble with tgif more, since it
seems to support embedding equations, but it's got a steep learning
curve.

-- 
Andrew Sterian                | <steriana@claymore.engineer.gvsu.edu>
Assistant Professor           | <http://claymore.engineer.gvsu.edu/~steriana>
Padnos School of Engineering  | (616) 331-6756
Grand Valley State University |