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by jllyhill 38 days ago
What would you say are the benefits of the grammar-of-graphics approach? I've been working with plotting for more than a decade now and have never heard of it. Right now I'm looking through the gallery and can't really grasp what makes this approach better than the one in matplotlib.

PS. It took someone in the comments writing "import plotnine as p9" for me to understand it isn't plotLine.
2 comments
icarusz 38 days ago
It has to do with the structure of the information/inputs. Its more a DSL with a structure rather than a jumble of API arguments. So first few times out it may take some getting used to, but as that structure becomes clear it becomes more intuitive. Thats also why even with way more matplotlib examples in the world, LLM agents do better "guessing" how to use plotnine... or at least it was that way a few months ago when we were testing them head to head.
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epgui 38 days ago
> What would you say are the benefits of the grammar-of-graphics approach?

When a mathematical formalism exists, just use that. Other approaches just reinvent the wheel on an ad-hoc/piecemeal basis and end up making all sorts of unnecessary compromises.

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