August 01, 2008 at 09:24 Tags Python

As I wrote in the last post , I found matplotlib to be a very nice library for plotting. So, considering that I really plan to use it for my Python programs at work, I've spent a little time to write some proof-of-concept code (I do this often when learning a new library. Nothing serves as a better reference than your own code). The first demo I wrote displays a bar plot, allowing the user to change the data shown on it in real-time, as well as using the matplotlib navigation toolbar and saving the plot to a file. Additionally, it allows some basic interaction with the plot (clicking on a bar brings up a message box) and playing with the plot's properties like the grid and the width of the bars.You can download this demo from here . The second demo is rather more sophisticated. It explores the dynamic abilities of matplotlib, which allows smooth and flicker-less animation. This demo features a "live" graph that runs continuously (unless the user asks it to pause). The user can explore the graph by selecting limits for the X and Y axes, and select whether he wants to see the grid and the X axis labels.It can be downloaded from here