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6 PDL::Graphics - Introduction to the PDL::Graphics modules
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9 PDL has full-featured plotting abilities. Unlike MATLAB, PDL relies
10 more on third-party libraries for its plotting features: Prima,
11 Gnuplot, OpenGL, PLplot and PGplot. PDL has several plotting modules
12 that you can choose from, each of them with their particular strength
13 and weaknesses. In this page, you will find a short review of each of
14 the main PDL::Graphics::* modules.
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17 The newest generation of PDL::Graphics modules
18 PDL::Graphics::Simple
19 Best for: backend-independent output: you get the same plots, whichever
21 of the graphical module you manage to install.
22 A unified backend-independent plotting interface for PDL. It implements
24 all the functionality used in the PDL::Book examples, and it will
25 probably be the easiest PDL::Graphics module for you to install, as it
26 relies on any of the other ones. Because it is backend-independent,
27 the plot you get will always be what you asked for, regardless of which
28 plotting engine you have installed on your system.
29 Only a small subset of PDL's complete graphics functionality is
31 supported -- each individual plotting module has unique advantages and
32 functionality that are beyond what PDL::Graphics::Simple can do.
33 PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot
35 Best for: publication-quality 2D and 3D plots
37 Gnuplot is widely used and produces publication-quality plots. It is
39 also interactive: you can pan, scale, and rotate both 2-D and 3-D
40 plots. And its API is powerful, simple and intuitive.
41 A video tutorial <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUXDQL3rZ_0> is
43 available.
44 Notice: you must install gnuplot on your computer first.
46 PDL::Graphics::Prima
48 Best for: Integration of your plots into your application GUI.
50 Possibility to create a dedicated GUI to let your application users
51 interact with the plotted data.
52 Lets you focus on what you want to visualize rather than the details of
54 how you would draw it. Its killer feature is that it belongs to the the
55 Prima GUI environment (an alternative to Tk, Gtk, Wx, etc). Prima
56 provides an array of useful interactive widgets and a simple but
57 powerful event-based programming model. These tools allow you to build
58 interactive data visualization and analysis applications with
59 sophisticated plotting and intuitive user interaction in only a few
60 hundred lines of code. Or more simply, to include a plot into an
61 application.
62 For this reason, PDL::Graphics::Prima's API is more complex than
64 PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot's. It is advised to start with
65 PDL::Graphics::Prima::Simple, which focuses on the plotting functions
66 and does not mess with Widgets. A tutorial is available here:
67 http://search.cpan.org/~chm/PDL-2.006/Demos/Prima.pm As well as a video
68 tutorial <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WILd2XTz3F4>.
69 PDL::Graphics::TriD
71 Best for: Plotting heavy 3D images, fast.
73 The native PDL 3D graphics library using OpenGL as a backend for 3D
75 plots and data visualization. With OpenGL, it is easy to manipulate the
76 resulting 3D objects with the mouse in real time.
77 OpenGL makes PDL::Graphics::TriD a lot faster than Gnuplot to
79 manipulate 3D images. But Gnuplot's output is publication quality, and
80 Gnuplot is in general easier to manipulate. If you manipulate heavy
81 images, PDL::Graphics::TriD might be the thing for you.
82 Good old PDL::Graphics modules
84 Still well maintained, documented, and widely used.
85 PDL::Graphics::PLplot
87 Best for: Plotting 2D functions as well as 2D and 3D data sets.
89 This is an interface to the PLplot plotting library. PLplot is a
91 modern, open source library for making scientific plots. It supports
92 plots of both 2D and 3D data sets. PLplot is best supported for
93 unix/linux/macosx platforms. It has an active developers community and
94 support for win32 platforms is improving.
95 PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT
97 Best for: Plotting 2D functions. More widely used in the scientific
99 community
100 This is an interface to the venerable PGPLOT library. PGPLOT has been
102 widely used in the academic and scientific communities for many years.
103 In part because of its age, PGPLOT has some limitations compared to
104 newer packages such as PLplot (e.g. no RGB graphics). But it has many
105 features that still make it popular in the scientific community.
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108 PDL::Graphics::Simple
109 PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot
111 PDL::Graphics::Prima
113 PDL::Graphics::TriD
115 PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT
117 PDL::Graphics::PLplot
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121 Pierre Masci, 2013
122perl v5.38.0 2023-07-21 GRAPHICS(1)