Gael Varoquaux wrote: > * pylab: I love the pylab API. I want (and I am not the only one) to > be able to construct a plot with a pylab script, or on the command > line. I would like to be able to modify it interactively > afterwards. Chaco's pylab equivalent is orders of magnitude below > the real pylab. I wonder why -- it sure looks doable. > * Output quality. Things like laTeX support, pdf and eps output, hmm -- I thought Kiva was designed around DisplayPDF, which you'd think would give you pdf support easily! > just an constant attention to small details like the tick size, > etc... give matplotlib an excellent output quality. Interesting, the examples I've seen of Chaco output sure look nice, but maybe it takes more tweaking to get there. > the two projects have different goals. The goals I see here seem to match pretty well: https://svn.enthought.com/enthought/wiki/ChacoProject Indeed, under PyCon2008 toDo, I see: "Fully verify PDF and SVG backends" also: "seemless install for chaco2 and chaco2demo packages for Win32, OS X, Ubuntu, Redhat" I did just find this (with some of your stuff, Gael), for a bit more info: http://code.enthought.com/chaco/docs/faq.shtml#comparison Some thoughts of mine: A few years back, before MPL, I was very excited about Chaco. however, at that time, Enthought ended up focusing on their needs, and things like non-Windows platforms, etc, were simple not supported. However, it looks like enthought is making a lot of effort to have their stuff play well with the open source community -- being able to use individual packages (traits, etc.), more support for other platforms, etc. So it comes a bit down to code base -- I think the goals of Chaco and MPL overlap a LOT -- I think different priorities have been put on them (more focus on GUI interactivity in Chaco, more focus on easy scripting in MPL), but both projects want to be able to do the same things in the long run. So it comes down to architecture, I guess -- which has the better architecture to build on in the future? I ahve no clue, I don't know either one well enough to comment. I guess it's time for me to dig into Chaco more. -Chris -- Christopher Barker, Ph.D. Oceanographer Emergency Response Division NOAA/NOS/OR&R (206) 526-6959 voice 7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception Chr...@no...