Comments for bit-player http://bit-player.org An amateur's outlook on computation and mathematics. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:42:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 Comment on Herbert R. J. Grosch, 1918-2010 by Elwood Downey http://bit-player.org/2010/herbert-r-j-grosch-1918-2010#comment-2688 Elwood Downey Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:50:49 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=582#comment-2688 Warning: OT! Love your blog, just started reading it several days ago. Found it while surfing for opinions to help me decide whether to restart a subscription to Sci Am. I loved that mag in 70s and 80s but gave up in the 90s. Still no better with a new editor so I guess it's gone for good. Anyway! I've been going back through your entries and soon became aware it was rather annoying that the entries must be read from bottom-to-top, while of course within each entry one reads top-to-bottom. So when starting a new month I scroll clear to the bottom, scroll up slowly to find the top of the last (earliest) entry, then when finished slowly go back up /two/headings to find the next (newer), etc. Argh! Why not just put the newest entry at the bottom each time?? Then the whole thing reads nicely top-to-bottom. Thanks :-) Warning: OT!

Love your blog, just started reading it several days ago. Found it while surfing for opinions to help me decide whether to restart a subscription to Sci Am. I loved that mag in 70s and 80s but gave up in the 90s. Still no better with a new editor so I guess it’s gone for good.

Anyway! I’ve been going back through your entries and soon became aware it was rather annoying that the entries must be read from bottom-to-top, while of course within each entry one reads top-to-bottom. So when starting a new month I scroll clear to the bottom, scroll up slowly to find the top of the last (earliest) entry, then when finished slowly go back up /two/headings to find the next (newer), etc. Argh! Why not just put the newest entry at the bottom each time?? Then the whole thing reads nicely top-to-bottom.

Thanks :-)

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by Mark VandeWettering http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2686 Mark VandeWettering Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:33:24 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2686 A long time ago I learned enough PostScript to be dangerous, and about four or five times a year I find some reason to actually code up a diagram or graph using PostScript. I find ghostscript to be very good at converting PostScript to raster formats, for the web as well. The ability of GhostScript to read TrueType and PostScript fonts means that you can do some fun things, like typesetting checkerboard positions: <a href="http://brainwagon.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/board6.png" rel="nofollow">A checkerboard position from my checkers program Milhouse</a> A long time ago I learned enough PostScript to be dangerous, and about four or five times a year I find some reason to actually code up a diagram or graph using PostScript. I find ghostscript to be very good at converting PostScript to raster formats, for the web as well. The ability of GhostScript to read TrueType and PostScript fonts means that you can do some fun things, like typesetting checkerboard positions:

A checkerboard position from my checkers program Milhouse

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by Marc http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2685 Marc Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:18:41 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2685 I'm currently learning Lisp. Any chance of getting a look at your code? I’m currently learning Lisp. Any chance of getting a look at your code?

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by hyperkinetic http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2683 hyperkinetic Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:58:26 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2683 Ahhh, the MX-80. Fine printer. Ahhh, the MX-80. Fine printer.

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by John Haugeland http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2682 John Haugeland Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:37:57 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2682 In my opinion, the modern dialect of PostScript - PDF - is the way to go. It provides all of the graphics primitives needed to do the work right, and it's very reliably viewed on a wide variety of platforms, as well as very readily brought to print in both POD and offset printing contexts, and most importantly, the de facto viewer is extremely reliable in terms of rendering what the file presents. The real problem with SVG is that it's hard to get clients to view it reliably. To that end, there are a lot of tools which convert from [html/xml]+css to PDF, and some of the better ones (my favorite is PrinceXML) can embed SVG, giving you the expressive notation of SVG with the reliable viewing target of PDF. Above and beyond that, it gives you the really quite nice pagination of CSS3 and the convenient framing of a full HTML+CSS3 implementation. It isn't free, but if you want to bail on PostScript, PDF is the place to go. It's PostScript 2 - it loses the programming language, but it's a direct descendant of the old post-compile format. Look at the specification some time. In my opinion, the modern dialect of PostScript - PDF - is the way to go. It provides all of the graphics primitives needed to do the work right, and it’s very reliably viewed on a wide variety of platforms, as well as very readily brought to print in both POD and offset printing contexts, and most importantly, the de facto viewer is extremely reliable in terms of rendering what the file presents.

The real problem with SVG is that it’s hard to get clients to view it reliably. To that end, there are a lot of tools which convert from [html/xml]+css to PDF, and some of the better ones (my favorite is PrinceXML) can embed SVG, giving you the expressive notation of SVG with the reliable viewing target of PDF. Above and beyond that, it gives you the really quite nice pagination of CSS3 and the convenient framing of a full HTML+CSS3 implementation.

It isn’t free, but if you want to bail on PostScript, PDF is the place to go. It’s PostScript 2 - it loses the programming language, but it’s a direct descendant of the old post-compile format. Look at the specification some time.

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by Jos Hirth http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2681 Jos Hirth Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:19:25 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2681 I used SVG for some graphs. Here is some example: http://kaioa.com/b/0803/cat_capacity.svgz It's fairly compact. If you take a look at the response header you can see that it's only 3,422 bytes in size (thanks to gzip compression). It automatically adjusts to the size of the view-port and it works in any semi-recent (non-IE) browser. One interesting detail is that the graphs contain the raw unaltered data. E.g. "L 8,1614.482" means with an initial capacity of 8 characters it took 1614.482 msecs to run the benchmark. Also, I made my benchmarks output the path data directly. It's a very simple format. M = move to, L = line to, and X/Y pairs. "M 0,2130.2948 L 8,1614.482 L , ..." I only had to copy that stuff and paste it over in Inkscape's XML editor. At the end I flipped and scaled it by applying some matrix. I mean... I could have generated some CSV and then open it in Calc or Excel, but that's just too boring. ;) I used SVG for some graphs. Here is some example:

http://kaioa.com/b/0803/cat_capacity.svgz

It’s fairly compact. If you take a look at the response header you can see that it’s only 3,422 bytes in size (thanks to gzip compression). It automatically adjusts to the size of the view-port and it works in any semi-recent (non-IE) browser.

One interesting detail is that the graphs contain the raw unaltered data. E.g. “L 8,1614.482″ means with an initial capacity of 8 characters it took 1614.482 msecs to run the benchmark.

Also, I made my benchmarks output the path data directly. It’s a very simple format. M = move to, L = line to, and X/Y pairs.

“M 0,2130.2948 L 8,1614.482 L , …”

I only had to copy that stuff and paste it over in Inkscape’s XML editor. At the end I flipped and scaled it by applying some matrix.

I mean… I could have generated some CSV and then open it in Calc or Excel, but that’s just too boring. ;)

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by klwe http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2680 klwe Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:38:32 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2680 SVG works everywhere except crappIE browsers. If you don't care about outdated tech, then there's no problem. SVG works everywhere except crappIE browsers. If you don’t care about outdated tech, then there’s no problem.

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by Oni http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2679 Oni Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:12:33 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2679 I think that SVG is the right choice. Not because the format is good per se, but because it can be converted into whatever you want and it's quite easy to traverse it with any language (as long as there is a library that can navigate trough XML). I've used it extensively for my thesis. I then used a script that passed all text to LaTeX in order to take care of the typesetting (while the original image, with stripped text, was converted in pdf and placed as background). I think that SVG is the right choice. Not because the format is good per se, but because it can be converted into whatever you want and it’s quite easy to traverse it with any language (as long as there is a library that can navigate trough XML).

I’ve used it extensively for my thesis. I then used a script that passed all text to LaTeX in order to take care of the typesetting (while the original image, with stripped text, was converted in pdf and placed as background).

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by Gary Ruben http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2676 Gary Ruben Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:09:31 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2676 I use and would recommend the Python Matplotlib library (which I thought you had used to produce your Figure 1 above until I read further). It lets you control clipping, line curves and bevelling etc. for vector plots, and uses a high quality antialiasing engine for raster plots. Admittedly you're pretty much forced to use Python rather than Lisp, but I gather you're resigned to using something different. I also think the R ggplot2 package looks nice http://had.co.nz/ggplot2/ which you could also drive from Python via the RPy2 interface if you were so inclined. I use and would recommend the Python Matplotlib library (which I thought you had used to produce your Figure 1 above until I read further). It lets you control clipping, line curves and bevelling etc. for vector plots, and uses a high quality antialiasing engine for raster plots. Admittedly you’re pretty much forced to use Python rather than Lisp, but I gather you’re resigned to using something different.

I also think the R ggplot2 package looks nice
http://had.co.nz/ggplot2/
which you could also drive from Python via the RPy2 interface if you were so inclined.

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by Zvika http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2675 Zvika Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:15:52 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2675 As long as you're making high-quality PostScript images for your blog, could you perhaps have the image link to a higher-resolution PNG which would open in a new window? That way, the OCD-afflicted perfectionists among your readers (myself included, of course) could appreciate your meticulous drawing capabilities, which are all but lost in a 400x400 pixel image. As long as you’re making high-quality PostScript images for your blog, could you perhaps have the image link to a higher-resolution PNG which would open in a new window? That way, the OCD-afflicted perfectionists among your readers (myself included, of course) could appreciate your meticulous drawing capabilities, which are all but lost in a 400×400 pixel image.

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by Rob Renaud http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2674 Rob Renaud Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:24:18 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2674 I wrote my own Javascript/canvas code to render graphs. I think it would be worthwhile for you to do so as well. With the kind of attention to detail you have, writing "to the metal" with calls to canvas is the way to go rather than using a library. I am particularly proud of the first graph on this page, for example. http://rftgstats.com/ Things like custom icons, variance bars, and drawing meaningful contours are things you just won't find in a high level library. Before writing my own custom code, I used the flot javascript plotting library, which is pretty and quick, but not particularly customizable. Certainly, if I wanted a nice plot in 15 minutes rather than a gorgeous, domain tailored one in 3 hours, I'd use flot. I wrote my own Javascript/canvas code to render graphs. I think it would be worthwhile for you to do so as well. With the kind of attention to detail you have, writing “to the metal” with calls to canvas is the way to go rather than using a library.

I am particularly proud of the first graph on this page, for example.

http://rftgstats.com/

Things like custom icons, variance bars, and drawing meaningful contours are things you just won’t find in a high level library.

Before writing my own custom code, I used the flot javascript plotting library, which is pretty and quick, but not particularly customizable. Certainly, if I wanted a nice plot in 15 minutes rather than a gorgeous, domain tailored one in 3 hours, I’d use flot.

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by 0x69 http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2673 0x69 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:59:08 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2673 If i need to plot from Python - then I use MatplotLib package. Otherwise - I just make plots with OpenOffice Calc - still good for simple graphs :-) If i need to plot from Python - then I use MatplotLib package. Otherwise - I just make plots with OpenOffice Calc - still good for simple graphs :-)

]]> Comment on Home-baked graphics by Frank Meulenaar http://bit-player.org/2010/home-baked-graphics#comment-2672 Frank Meulenaar Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:22:29 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=593#comment-2672 I always use Mathematica, it exports to eps/SVG, renders to jpg/png (in the resolution you require) and probably anything else you would ever like. Still there is some work to be done, like choosing the correct background color. I always use Mathematica, it exports to eps/SVG, renders to jpg/png (in the resolution you require) and probably anything else you would ever like.

Still there is some work to be done, like choosing the correct background color.

]]> Comment on Herbert R. J. Grosch, 1918-2010 by Nemo http://bit-player.org/2010/herbert-r-j-grosch-1918-2010#comment-2661 Nemo Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:32:48 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=582#comment-2661 "Signed ternary" is almost certainly referring to "Balanced Ternary". <a href="http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/third-base/" rel="nofollow">Here is one reference</a> describing balanced ternary, although I have a feeling you do not need it. :-) “Signed ternary” is almost certainly referring to “Balanced Ternary”.

Here is one reference describing balanced ternary, although I have a feeling you do not need it. :-)

]]> Comment on Information is physical by Mike Cane http://bit-player.org/2009/information-is-physical#comment-2659 Mike Cane Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:14:33 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=509#comment-2659 What a shock it was for me to trip across this post. I had this revelation on my own about a decade ago and friends would look at me as if I'd dropped my brain when I tried to explain this to them. Thanks! What a shock it was for me to trip across this post. I had this revelation on my own about a decade ago and friends would look at me as if I’d dropped my brain when I tried to explain this to them. Thanks!

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