package PDL::Graphics;

=head1 NAME

PDL::Graphics - Introduction to the PDL::Graphics modules

=head1 DESCRIPTION

PDL has full-featured plotting abilities. Unlike MATLAB, PDL relies
more on third-party libraries  for its plotting features: Prima,
Gnuplot, OpenGL, PLplot and PGplot. PDL has several plotting modules
that you can choose from, each of them with their particular
strength and weaknesses. In this page, you will find a short review
of each of the main PDL::Graphics::* modules.

=head1 GRAPHIC MODULES REVIEWS

=head2 The newest generation of PDL::Graphics modules

=head3 L<PDL::Graphics::Simple>

Best for: backend-independent output: you get the same plots,
whichever of the graphical module you manage to install.

A unified backend-independent plotting interface
for PDL. It implements all the functionality used in the
L<PDL::Book> examples, and it will probably be the easiest L<PDL::Graphics>
module for you to install, as it relies on any of the other ones.
Because it is backend-independent, the
plot you get will always be what you asked for, regardless of which
plotting engine you have installed on your system.

Only a subset of PDL's complete graphics functionality is
supported -- each individual plotting module has unique advantages and
functionality that are beyond what L<PDL::Graphics::Simple> can do.

=head3 L<PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot>

Best for: publication-quality 2D and 3D plots

Gnuplot is widely used and produces publication-quality plots. It is
also interactive: you can pan, scale, and rotate both 2-D and 3-D
plots. And its API is powerful, simple and intuitive.

A L<video tutorial|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUXDQL3rZ_0> is
available.

Notice: you must install gnuplot on your computer first.

=head3 L<PDL::Graphics::Prima>

Best for: Integration of your plots into your application GUI.
Possibility to create a dedicated GUI to let your application users
interact with the plotted data.

Lets you focus on what you want to visualize rather than the details
of how you would draw it. Its killer feature is that it belongs to the
the Prima GUI environment (an alternative to Tk, Gtk, Wx, etc). Prima
provides an array of useful interactive widgets and a simple but powerful
event-based programming model. These tools allow you to build interactive
data visualization and analysis applications with sophisticated plotting
and intuitive user interaction in only a few hundred lines of code. Or
more simply, to include a plot into an application.

For this reason, L<PDL::Graphics::Prima>'s API is more complex than
L<PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot>'s. It is advised to start with
L<PDL::Graphics::Prima::Simple>, which focuses on the plotting
functions and does not mess with Widgets. A tutorial is available here:
http://search.cpan.org/~chm/PDL-2.006/Demos/Prima.pm
As well as a L<video tutorial|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WILd2XTz3F4>.

=head3 L<PDL::Graphics::TriD>

Best for: Plotting heavy 3D images, fast.

The native PDL 3D graphics library using OpenGL as a backend for 3D
plots and data visualization. With OpenGL, it is easy to manipulate
the resulting 3D objects with the mouse in real time.

OpenGL makes L<PDL::Graphics::TriD> a lot faster than Gnuplot to
manipulate 3D images. But Gnuplot's output is publication quality, and
Gnuplot is in general easier to manipulate. If you manipulate
heavy images, L<PDL::Graphics::TriD> might be the thing for you.

=head2 Good old PDL::Graphics modules

Still well maintained, documented, and widely used.

=head3 L<PDL::Graphics::PLplot>

Best for: Plotting 2D functions as well as 2D and 3D data sets.

This is an interface to the PLplot plotting library. PLplot is a
modern, open source library for making scientific plots. It supports
plots of both 2D and 3D data sets. PLplot is best supported for
unix/linux/macosx platforms. It has an active developers community and
support for win32 platforms is improving.

=head3 L<PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT>

Best for: Plotting 2D functions. More widely used in the scientific community

This is an interface to the venerable PGPLOT library. PGPLOT has been
widely used in the academic and scientific communities for many years.
In part because of its age, PGPLOT has some limitations compared to
newer packages such as PLplot (e.g. no RGB graphics). But it has many
features that still make it popular in the scientific community.

=head1 AUTHOR

Pierre Masci, 2013
