From: piir@... (Todd Gardner)
Date: 2004-06-19T19:48:20+09:00
Subject: Comparison of GLs for plotting (x,y,z) pts?

Hello everyone,

I need to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Windows 2000 and I haven't
yet gotten a compiler working on this system.  Pardon any odd looking
text because my voice dictation software quite often inserts the wrong
word.  Just in case you can't tell yet, I am a Ruby newbie and I
apologize for asking rudimentary questions.  Please feel free to just
tell me where to go :-).  Literally, the ulr would be terrific.

My goal is to have my application plot arrays of (x,y) and possibly
(x,y,z) data points in "real time".  I would also like to write text
on the graphs.  I would like to ask for a knowledgeable comparison and
contrast of the multitudes of graphic utility libraries out there
capable of doing this seemingly SIMPLE plotting.

=== Please comment on the following ===
Because of all your help, I have had some great successes with the
following:

Tcl and tk - I don't know to draw lines in this library yet and the
windows look slightly different than I expect.

WxRuby - I don't know how to draw lines yet in this library.

spreadsheet-0.2.8.tar using win32ole - I would like to embed Excel in
my Ruby code.

FXRuby - this looks like an excellent possibility however, this looks
a bit more complicated than OpenGL.  It looks like I have to draw
everything and I don't know how to easily write text on the graphics I
create.  I.e. I believe have to draw the axes.

OpenGL - this looks like an excellent possibility.  It looks like I
have to draw everything good and I don't know how to easily write
text.  I.e. I believe have to draw the axes.

=== Please comment on the following if you have Windows 2k successes
I have also had limited success with the following libraries ending in
a show of my ignorance with POSIX OSs, cygwin or using compilers on
Windows:
Rmagick - object not loading properly
SVG::Graph - does not generate graphics directly
ROOT - way to comprehensive for now
PGPLOT - POSIX
Narray � POSIX
rgl-0[1].2.1 � POSIX
TkGnuplot-0.1.tar  � POSIX
ruby-graphviz_0.2.0.tar  � POSIX
gp400win32 - I'm not sure how to call the libraries.

I greatly appreciate all of the assistance and pointers you have been
giving me!

Thank you,

Todd