When it comes to data visulatization I feel like processing is lagging behind d3 and protovis. Thoughts?

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frododrum..

When it comes to data visulatization I feel like processing is lagging behind d3 and protovis. Thoughts?

in General Discussion • Other • 10 months ago

Back Story
I been spending a good amount of time becoming familiar with the processing language with the intention of creating interactive data visualizations. Recently, I've finally become comfortable enough with the language to begin creating some plots and charts. I thought a natural place to start would be with the basic time-series line chart that Excel is really good at. Through this experience I discovered it is straight forward to plot the data, but very tedious to create a fully decorated chart with axes, tick marks, titles, and labels.

So what's up?
Then I wised up and sought out a library. The only option I could dig up is the gwoptics library. It seems like a nice beginning, but it does not compare to the what is being produced with other visualization languages, (e.g. see https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery). It also appears that development of the gwoptics library has halted. Why hasn't there been more interest in creating a processing library that can facilitate the creation of data visuals like those seen at the d3 gallery? Does something like this already exist?

Replies(3)

amnon.owed

Re: When it comes to data visulatization I feel like processing is lagging behind d3 and protovis. Thoughts?

10 months ago

In my humble opinion...

If you are going to compare different options, you should formulate comparison criteria. You current criterium seems to be "how easy is it to create an excel-like chart?". This is a fairly pointless criterium, because obviously excel will be the best choice for this. In my view Processing is suitable for creating unique interactive data visualizations that programs such as excel can't create. For example check out:

In a more general way. There are many different programs that can be used for data vizualization. They range from out-of-the-box solutions that are quick, easy and generic to programming frameworks that are relatively hard, take more time, but provide unique outcomes. If you want a generic outcome, then choose an out-of-the-box type of program (such as excel, google spreadsheets, many eyes, tableau software or your.flowingdata). If you want a unique outcome, then choose an program that gives more freedom to create (such as processing / processing.js, R, D3 etc.).

Since Protovis is no longer being actively developed (that team is now focussing on D3), let me just share thoughts on D3. Saying Processing is lagging behind D3 would imply that they are in a race towards the same destination. This is not the case. Processing is a general purpose visually-oriented wrapper for java (and a lot more things with a lot more different goals). D3 is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on large data set within the web browser. So it has a very specific purpose and it does this very well.

You have the luck to live in a time where there is a broad palette of options. You can define your preferred outcome and then choose the instrument that will help you realise this outcome. This may even be a combination of tools. The closer your goal lies to the strength of a specific program, the more it makes sense to choose that program. If your goal lies close to the capabilities and purpose of D3, it may be a very smart thing to work with D3. It depends on your goal.

Your final question is why there isn't a data visualization library for Processing. Indeed many of the outcomes from excel and D3 could be created in Processing as well. The answer may be related to the thoughts formulated above. For out-of-the box solutions, there are alternatives. Excel is the most used data vizualization tool in the world. For flexible solutions, still specifically aimed at data vizualization, there are also alternatives such as D3. With regard to this area Processing has in the past been mostly used for unique data vizualizations (as mentioned it's strength in my opinion), but those type of programs aren't really suitable to turn into a library. However you are not the first person to ask these questions. So perhaps there is a demand and perhaps someone could and will create a data vizualization oriented library for Processing. Anything is possible.

My $0.02.

nootropic..

Re: When it comes to data visulatization I feel like processing is lagging behind d3 and protovis. Thoughts?

10 months ago

hi. just wanto to add something but i think the amnon aswer is really a good point of view on the topic.

[answer at you question] no i don't think. processing.org is a quite poor " decorated" enviroment. you have to write from scratch a lot of things. especially if you talk about gui. D3 is in js and it uses html. it is a different enviroment, much more "typographic" oriented, and much more stable for decorations. it is much more easy to add style enhancement with css (and think about new capability of css3!).

but this is does not take away nothing from processing.org enviroment (and, more extencively to a raw opengl enviroment).

[off topic and ramon thoughts answer] i have played a little bit in the past alsowith flare (for actionscript 3) that is a port of prefuse for java, and D3 seems to be a port of it for js, at a first look.

the problem, imho and also as amnon sad (and probabilly the most pubblished answer on problems) is: it depends on what you want to do.

If you want to do some infographics for web (or for a stunning responsive app for mobile) that anyone can see from a browser, the answer is D3. Because proceesing.org is difficult to pubblish on web.

But if you want to investigate deeper on i.e. 3 dimensional organization of data in the space or more advanced interaction.. well, D3 and js is a poor tool.

Think for example about kinect and fluid interaction involving the body gestures or physical computing and object interaction like tangible interfaces...

Yeah ok, you can arrange node.js and bring arduino data to the browser but processing is a better tool for that.

velvetkev..

Re: When it comes to data visulatization I feel like processing is lagging behind d3 and protovis. Thoughts?

10 months ago

Excellently put by Amnon Owed there. Bear in mind that Processing is not only a data vis tool.

On the library front though, have you seen giCentre Utilities?

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