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I am looking for a gnuplot-like program for charting data in a timeline.

gnuplot-like ==

  • Runs on Linux
  • command line functionality (a GUI isn't going to help me much)
  • scriptable syntax
  • outputs to jpg, png, svg, or gif

The output should be something like this: 

    |         |         |         |         |
set5|######################       |         |
    |         |         |         |         |
set4|      ######     #######     | ########|
    |         |         |         |         | 
set3|############       |#############      |##
    |         |         |         |         |
set2|         #########################     |
    |         |         |         |         |
set1|   #########       |###      |##########
    |         |         |         |         |
----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+--
  00:00     00:30     01:00     01:30     02:00

My end goal is to automate the time line image creation using some data from scheduled gawk-based scripts. I've explored some ways to do this with gnuplot. The Boxxyerrorbar plot looks promising, or possibly a stacked bar chart with some transparent sections, or even a heat map type plot could work.

But before I dive any further into forcing my requirements through a gnuplot shaped hole, I wanted to see if anyone else knows of anything useful else that will work.

Hari Seldon
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2 Answers2

3

Along with R there is also matplotlib that has tons of charting possibilities.

Also I prefer matplotlib because it builds on python which is a very well developed and documented scripting language.

If you have used matlab before you will find matplotlib very easy to learn since it orients its API after the matlab way of plotting stuff.

Woltan
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  • I like matplotlib... specifically I think that the [broken bar](http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/pylab_examples/broken_barh.html) plot will give me exactly what I need. Thanks for the suggestion – Hari Seldon Feb 02 '12 at 12:40
2

Have you looked at the R language and its literally hundreds of add-on libraries, including perhaps a dozen just for graphs and charts?

It's a programming language whose sole purpose for existing is data analysis and visualization. You write scripts in it (or use it interactively) just like any other scripting language, and it works its magic in repeatable fashion. It meets all your technical requirements, and in the very worst case you could create the plot you want with line drawing functions (but I'd bet there's already something that does what you want). There is a relevant mailing list discussion here.

Borealid
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