Software:Ploticus

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Ploticus
Ploticus logo.png
Ploticus wikipedia stats.png
A plot of Wikipedia statistics in Ploticus
Original author(s)Steve Grubb
Initial releaseAugust 25, 1999; 24 years ago (1999-08-25)
Stable release
2.42 / May 2013; 11 years ago (2013-05)
Written inC
Operating systemCross-platform
LicenseGPL
Websiteploticus.sourceforge.net

Ploticus is a free, open-source (GPL) computer program for producing plots and charts from data. It runs under Unix, Solaris, Mac OS X, Linux and Win32 systems.[1] Community support is customarily done through Yahoo News Groups.[2]

History

The first version was released August 25, 1999.[3] Ploticus is a mature product with activity, where the last major release (2.42) occurred in May 2013.[4] Bruce Byfield in Linux.com described Ploticus as, "...a throwback to the days when Unix programs did one thing, and did it well, using a minimum of system resources."[5]

On December 17, 2016 or 2017, the author announced halting development and support of ploticus. A previous bug fix was released as a patch without a new version being released. Finally on March 16, 2023, the author announced their focus shifted to DataDraw, a new project implemented in Python exposing an API to generate SVG graphs.

Graph types and features

At the center of Ploticus lies a scripting language.[6] Through the scripting language, "2-D graphs and... basic statistical functions" are supported.[5] Sophisticated graphs can be developed quickly using scripts previously developed, called "prefabs". Simple graphs can be produced using few parameters in addition to the data.[7] Users can create and modify "prefabs".

Ploticus supports the following types of plot: line plots, filled line plots, category line plots, ranges sweeps, pie graphs, vertical bar graphs, horizontal bar charts, timelines, floating bar segments, bar proportions, scatter plots, heat maps (density grids), single variable distribution, error bars, curve fitting, vector plots, Venn diagrams, Venn magnitude charts, tree diagrams. Features include: scaling and axes, legends, annotations, clickmap, and mouse-over support.[8]

Applications

Ploticus has been used for:

  • Animal Phenome Graphing [9]
  • Climate Trending[10]
  • Health Data Analysis[11]

As a plug-in

Ploticus can be used as a plug-in with various other software such as:

See also

  • List of graphing software

References

  1. Ploticus Downloads Accessed 9 September 2011.
  2. Yahoo News Groups Community Accessed 9 September 2011.
  3. Old News from Ploticus Accessed 8 February 2008.
  4. Latest News from Ploticus Accessed 9 September 2011.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Linux.COM Ploticus Review Accessed 9 September 2011.
  6. Ploticus Scripting Home Accessed 9 September 2011.
  7. Ploticus Prefabs Accessed 9 September 2011.
  8. Ploticus Gallery Accessed 9 September 2011.
  9. Mouse Phenome Database Accessed 9 September 2011.
  10. Climate Trending Accessed 9 September 2011.
  11. Vitalnet Software Accessed 24 October 2011.
  12. Semantic MediaWiki Accessed 9 September 2011.
  13. astGUIclient Accessed 4 October 2011.

External links