Better Graphing for Mac OS X from DataTools
Several months ago, I looked into a graphing package called DataGraph. It's really good for what it does, and it's exceptionally inexpensive - unbeatable combination. I've been looking for something like VantagePoint for Mac OS X in Obj-C and this was looking like it was exactly what I wanted: it had a stand-alone package as well as a Framework for development and looked pretty nice. The only problem was that it was limited to simply 2D data.
The simulations I wanted to use this on are the electrostatic potentials and shark, my thesis work. The problem with these is that they are really 2D displays of 3D data. There was a more feature-rich product called DataTank, but that was $1300/seat. I wanted something in between - something that had the few 3D mapped to 2D graphs I needed without spending major dollars for this. I asked the developer at the time and (understandably) he wasn't as receptive as he might have been.
So I waited.
I decided to post another request on his message board asking if he'd be interested in this - given that I'm certainly willing to pay a few hundred dollars for this package. Lo and behold, he was interested, and emailed me back. I was thrilled!
I've been talking over a few ideas with him since then, and I'm really excited about the possibilities of getting DataImage (that's what he's tentatively calling it) as it will really enable me to do the work on the simulations I want as well as some interesting financial software that I've been thinking about writing. I can't wait to see what he's going to work up.
In the meantime, he's mentioned a few of the examples he delivers with his Framework and how they work with real-time data. I'm going to check those out and see what's up. Additionally, he mentioned that the communication with DataGraph, and therefore DataImage, is through a BSD sockets layer that he's written and Open Sourced. This means that I can have a look and see what it's going to take to integrate the FORTRAN code of my simulator to DataImage. That will be exciting as well.
Exciting times. Yeah!