fewlines - log your dashboard

Whether we like it or not, we debug things by putting print statements around.

fewlines is a supplement for this, allowing to plot bar charts which only take few lines in a terminal output, but can be a very useful piece of information. In a more extended form fewlines can be used for logging collections of charts in a dashboard-like form.

Currently python only. c++ version in progress and experimental.

Requires Unicode block characters. Horizon-style color output requires terminal with 256 ANSI colors. Monochrome version can be used for logging distributions to text files.

Example: plotting distribution of weights, gradients and activations for layers in LoRA neural net modules:

=== WEIGHTS ===
~~~~~~~~~ -0.000912|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|0.000912
               Q0.B|▃▇▅▄▄▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▃▃▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▃▄▄▆▇▃|
               V0.B|▁▆▇▇▆▅▄▃▃▄▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▄▄▅▆▇▇▆▁|
               Q1.B|▃▇▇▇▅▅▄▄▃▄▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▄▄▅▅▆▇▇▃|
               V1.B|▂▇▇▆▅▄▄▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▁▂▂▁▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▁▁▁▂▁▂▂▁▁▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▄▅▅▆▇▇▂|
               Q2.B|▂▆▇▆▅▄▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▃▃▃▃▂▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂▃▂▃▃▂▃▃▂▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▄▄▅▆▇▇▂|
               V2.B|▂▇▇▆▅▄▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▁▁▂▂▂▁▁▂▁▁▂▁▁▁▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▅▆▇▇▂|
               Q3.B|▃▇▇▇▅▅▄▄▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂▃▃▂▃▃▃▃▃▃▄▄▅▅▆▇▇▃|
               V3.B|▃▇▇▆▅▄▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▄▄▆▇▇▃|
               Q4.B|▂▆▇▇▅▅▄▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▁▁▂▁▁▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▄▅▅▆▇▆▂|
               V4.B|▃▇▆▅▄▃▂▂▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▂▂▃▄▅▆▇▃|
               Q5.B|▃▇▇▆▆▅▄▄▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▃▃▂▂▃▂▃▃▃▃▃▄▄▄▅▆▇▇▆▃|
               V5.B|▃▇▆▅▄▃▂▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▂▂▂▃▄▅▆▇▄|
               Q6.B|▃▇▇▆▅▄▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▁▁▂▂▂▂▂▁▁▂▁▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▄▅▆▇▇▃|
               V6.B|▄▇▆▄▃▃▂▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▂▃▄▅▆▇▃|
               Q7.B|▃▇▇▆▅▄▄▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▅▆▇▇▃|
               V7.B|▄▇▆▄▃▂▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ ▁▁   ▁▁      ▁   ▁  ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▂▃▄▆▇▅|
               Q8.B|▄▇▆▅▄▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▁▂▁▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▄▅▆▇▄|
               V8.B|▅▇▅▄▃▂▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁  ▁▁ ▁▁            ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▂▃▄▅▇▅|

As we can see, it's very compact, can be put to log files with any other relevant info and gives a good insight into what do weights look like: bimodal, close to 1e-4, earlier layers move closer to center.

While created originally to plot distributions of weights/gradients or ML models it is not restricted to ML use cases, obviously. Can be used to show latency distribution, for example.

python installation:

pip install fewlines

Usage example

Basic charts

from fewlines import charts as fc
import numpy as np

A = np.random.normal(size=100)
print('Just the list of numbers')
for l in fc.histogram_chart(A):
    print(l)
print('the list of numbers with extra options')
for l in fc.histogram_chart((A, {'n_lines': 3})):
    print(l)
print('the dict title -> numbers')
for l in fc.histogram_chart({'series_A': A}):
    print(l)
print('the dict title -> numbers, options')
for l in fc.histogram_chart({'series_A': (A, {'n_lines': 3})}):
    print(l)

Output: Note that multi-line charts rendering might depend on terminal spacing settings. Here in markdown it is messed up, so I'm attaching it as image.

Dashboards

from fewlines import metrics as fm
from fewlines import dashboard as fd
import numpy as np
import time

# logging data somewhere
for i, v in enumerate(np.random.lognormal(mean=1.0, sigma=0.7, size=1000)):
    fm.add('ssd_read_latency', v, time.time() - i)
for i, v in enumerate(np.random.lognormal(mean=3.0, sigma=0.7, size=1500)):
    fm.add('nw_recv_latency', v, time.time() - i)

print("\n## Default one-line dashboards with wildcard")
for s in fd.histograms('*latency'):
    print(s)

for s in fd.timeseries('*latency'):
    print(s)

print()
print('\n## two histograms with separate scales with larger height and horizon colors')
for s in fd.dashboard({"charts": [('*latency', 'histogram')], "n_lines": 3, "color": 'green'}):
    print(s) 

print()
print('\n## two histograms sharing the scale as they are part of the same group with larger height and horizon colors')
for s in fd.dashboard({"charts": [[('*latency', 'histogram')]], "n_lines": 3, "color": 'green'}):
    print(s)

print()
conf = {
    "title": "Custom Dashboard",
    "charts": [
        ('ssd_read_latency', 'timeseries', {'n_lines': 3, 'color': None}),
        [
            ('ssd_read_latency', 'timeseries'),
            ('ssd_read_latency', 'timeseries', {'agg': 'max'}),
            ('ssd_read_latency', 'timeseries', {'agg': 'min'}),
        ],
        ('ssd_read_latency', 'histogram', {'n_lines': 4, 'color': 'green'}),
        ('ssd_read_latency', 'histogram', {'n_lines': 4, 'color': 'gray'}),
        ('ssd_read_latency', 'histogram', {'n_lines': 6, 'color': None}),
    ],
    "time": -600, # default -3600
    "bins": 60, # default 60
    "title_width": 40, # default 30
    "n_lines": 3,
    "color": None,
}
print('\n## detailed complicated config with different aggregations')
for s in fd.dashboard(conf):
    print(s)

Output: