uwevoelker has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

On CPAN are two distributions for drawing charts: GD::Graph and Chart.
Chart has the disadvantage of not having POD documentation (but instead has a PDF). What else are the differences between these two modules? Which one do you use?
Do you know a comparision of these two?

Thank you.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Chart drawing: GDGraph or Chart?
by davorg (Chancellor) on Sep 23, 2004 at 10:56 UTC

    I've just had some good successes using SVG::TT::Graph to produce charts in SVG (I then use either batik or rsvg to convert it to a raster image for the SVG-challenged).

    --
    <http://www.dave.org.uk>

    "The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
    -- Chip Salzenberg

[reply]
      Nice idea!
      But for me, this is not suitable. I would like to generate the charts from a cronjob - so the smaller the better :-)
[reply]

        Well, the SVG -> PNG conversion takes a bit longer than I'd like, so currently I'm only planning to use this for charts that are generated in a batch run from a cronjob. And the PNGs aren't going to be any bigger than similar PNGs generated by any other process.

        --
        <http://www.dave.org.uk>

        "The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
        -- Chip Salzenberg

[reply]
Re: Chart drawing: GDGraph or Chart?
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Sep 23, 2004 at 12:26 UTC
    Chart uses GD to do the drawing, as does GD::Graph. Personally, I have used GD::Graph with very good results. I even wrote Graph::Template to work with HTML::Template data structures and wrap over GD::Graph.

    Personally, I would work with Template Toolkit and the graphing plugin that comes with the main distribution. A coworker of mine got it up and running in under an hour, never having used TT before. The examples, apparently, are very helpful. :-)

    ------
    We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

    Then there are Damian modules.... *sigh* ... that's not about being less-lazy -- that's about being on some really good drugs -- you know, there is no spoon. - flyingmoose

    I shouldn't have to say this, but any code, unless otherwise stated, is untested

[reply]
Re: Chart drawing: GDGraph or Chart?
by gwhite (Friar) on Sep 23, 2004 at 13:00 UTC

    I have been using GD::Graph for a number of years. It is reliable, GD::Chart was just released this year and still has a development version number (< 1). GD::Graph offers more graph/chart style options than chart, so I guess part of the question goes back to what kinds of charts/graphs do you want to produce?

    g_White
[reply]
      Hello g_White,

      GD::Chart in fact is a third module, I meant Chart (it is currently version 2.3).

      GD::Graph and Chart have the same chart types (at least the standard ones I looked at).
[reply]
Re: Chart drawing: GDGraph or Chart?
by bsdz (Friar) on Sep 23, 2004 at 15:10 UTC
    For a very good commercial chart package see ChartDirector. I use it and it's fast, reliable, well documented and well supported.
[reply]

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