Install

I can always help. Installing things is frustrating.

You might need to install ruby.

https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/

You will also need to install gnuplot and imagemagick.

http://www.gnuplot.info/download.html http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php

Setup

First, make a directory in /data and /implementation with your name.

To do that (replace your_name with your name or handle):

mkdir data/your_name
mkdir implementation/your_name

Second, copy the examples:

cp data/wilkie/* data/your_name
cp implementation/data_analysis/wilkie.rb implementation/data_analysis/your_name.rb
cp implementation/data_plot/wilkie.rb implementation/data_plot/your_name.rb
cp implementation/data_loader/wilkie.rb implementation/data_loader/your_name.rb

Now, you can at this point look at how my example works (again, substitute my name, wilkie, with your own)

ruby plot.rb wilkie

And then make sure it also works for your name

ruby plot.rb your_name

Take a look at output.gif for each

Now, think about the data you would like to visualize... and find that data.

https://nycopendata.socrata.com/ - New York City civic data (download as JSON or XLS) http://www.pewresearch.org/data/download-datasets/ - Pew research data (tech usage, social trends, demographics) (usually in XLS)

Put all of your data in data/wilkie

Write code!

In DataLoader, you figure out how to load the data from the files you are using

• my example loads from json and from an xls (excel spreadsheet)

In DataAnalysis, you can rework some of the data

• in my example, I extended values that were missing by simply naively using existing data

In DataPlot, you can plot your result

• gnuplot examples are examples/line.rb and examples/box.rb
• gruff examples are examples/pie_chart.rb
• you can just drop one of those in, and adjust it until it works for you :)