Data Visualization using Perl/Tk

Idean writes "Generating a visual representation is often the best way to understand large data sets, but standard tools such as gnuplot often fall short. This article shows how to use Perl/Tk, the standard GUI toolkit for Perl, to quickly build custom plotting and graphing tools."

Comments

Perl or Line Noise

[Mr. Darl McBride]

Perl/Tk. Because Perl wasn't cryptic enough. :)

I know, mod me down! But hear me out first: We played a game of "Perl or Line Noise" where lines of hand-picked valid perl (admittedly some more cryptic choices) and 7-bit chopped output from /dev/random were presented on screen. Three users had to race to punch a button first if they thought they were looking at valid perl. If it was "line noise," they had to let it time out after three seconds, just like Jack Attacks, in You Don't Know Jack.

At the end, two players ended up with slightly negative scores! Perl may be powerful, but so are many a hallucinogen, and they too - are maddening.

Statistical Data

[neglige]

Examples of complicated graphs include specialized bar-and-whiskers plots

I had to cope with box-and-whisker plots to visualize data gathered from a statistical survey. Frankly, Perl/Tk was nothing I looked into (and I love Perl & Tk!). I entered the data into an OpenOffice spreadsheet (which made the statistical calculation very easy!) and googled for a solution. There are many commercial packages available for Excel, but this article was really helpful. I managed to create a similar solution for OO (I'm not sure if the result is of interest to anyone - if so, msg me or something).

Does anyone know a repository for statistical analysis programs? Because if you only need to run an analysis once, you think twice about hacking a Perl/Tk program (the 'clean' approach) unless you are a true Perl wiz - the time needed to write the program is (with my programming abilites) two or three times longer than looking for another one shot solution (the 'practical' approach).

If there was a central repository for this, you a) knew where to look first and b) had an incentive to write the program to save someone else the time. Yes, I know I could put it up to some website, but I really doubt anyone would find it or even look for it...