Library Request: GNUPlot Library

[LouisJenkinsCS]

I think that it would be very cool to have a GNUPlot library that provides context objects that keep track of a mapping of all requested user settings, and then at the end generates the GNUPlot script. As well, a way to read in a GNUPlot script into memory and back into a context object so that it can be easily modified would be great too, in that it provides ways to create templates.

What I envision it would look like

class GNUPlotFigure {
   var labels : domain(string);
   var points : [labels] Vector(real);
}

proc GNUPlotFigure.createAxis(name : string, logscale = 1.0) throws : void {}
proc GNUPlotFigure.addPoint(name : string, point : real) {}
proc GNUPlotFigure.addPoints(name : string, points...?N : real) {}
proc GNUPlotFigure.addPoints(name : string, points : _iteratorRecord) {}

class GNUPlotContext {
   var figureNames : domain(string);
   var figures : [figureNames] owned GNUPlotFigure;
}

proc GNUPlotContext.createFigure(name : string) throws : GNUPlotFigure {}
proc GNUPlotContext.getFigure(name : string) throws : GNUPlotFigure {}
proc GNUPlotContext.removeFigure(name : string) throws : void {}
proc GNUPlotContext.plot(name : string) throws : void {}

What I envision using it would look like

Creating a log-log (base 2) figure...

var gp = new GNUPlotContext();
var fig = gp.createFigure("Example");
fig.createAxis("Locales", logscale = 2);
fig.createAxis("Time (s)", logscale = 2);

var timer = new Timer();
for i in 0..#numLocales {
   timer.start();
   coforall loc in Locales[0..i] do on loc {
      coforall tid in 1..here.maxTaskPar {
         computationalWork(loc.id, tid);
      }
   }
   timer.end();
   fig.addPoint("Locales", i);
   fig.addPoint("Time (s)", timer.elapsed());
   timer.clear();
}
gp.plot("Example.plot");

I think something like this can possibly save a lot of time when collecting benchmarks. Why? All of the data can be directly deposited into the GNUPlot figures and context object rather than outputting to file and then having to manually parse it later. As well it eliminates quite a bit of boilerplate and can provide useful defaults.

As mentioned before, the ability to read in a template file would be very cool and even more time consuming so you waste less time having to rewrite the same configuration, and instead you can write-once-use-anytime!

Why not make/contribute this yourself?

I genuinely don't have time, but that doesn't make something like this any less cool! It would be cool if someone who wants something similar with a bit more time, or for someone trying to break into Chapel and get their first library going, to implement something like this!

[LouisJenkinsCS]

A good list of example and high-quality GNUPLot templates: https://github.com/hesstobi/Gnuplot-Templates

[ben-albrecht]

@marcoscleison started a project here: https://github.com/marcoscleison/chapel-gnuplot

Perhaps a good first step to would be publishing this package to the mason registry.

[LouisJenkinsCS]

It looks pretty nice, although I definitely have a few suggestion w.r.t API changes.

[ben-albrecht]

It looks pretty nice, although I definitely have a few suggestion w.r.t API changes.

It might be best to express these as issues on that repo.

[oplambeck]

Gnuplot is now a package that is available on the mason-registry.