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Plotting capabilities
All this is about the new plotting module and mostly covers the matplotlib backend.
Many examples of the plotting module capabilities are given in the docstrings and the IPython notebooks that are part of the module. However, there are many other types of plots that can be implemented and those are not listed anywhere. Hence this page on which the capabilities of other software packages will be compared to the current plotting module.
All the syntax examples will be from the highest level convenience functions. No BaseSeries subclasses will be visible. The Plot class will not be called directly.
The most explicit form of the arguments is given for the API examples (eg. plot(expr, (var, from, to)) instead of plot(expr) which finds the independent variable and uses a default range).
Remark about the Plot class: The low-level way to create a plot is to create instances of BaseSeries and append them to a Plot instance. However, for convenience, Plot also supports creating these BaseSeries instances itself for a small subset of all BaseSeries subclasses. Check the factory class Series for details.
Remark about the examples from other software packages: Their APIs will differ.
TODO: finish the table
| Type | API In Sympy | Example Image | Elsewhere |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2D line plot of a list of points | plot(list_x, list_y) |
Mathematica's ListPlot |
|
| 2D line plot of an expression | plot(expr, (var, from, to)) |
Mathematica's Plot |
|
| 2D parametric line plot | plot(expr_x, expr_y, (param, from, to)) |
Mathematica's ParamatricPlot |
|
| 3D parametric line plot | plot(expr_x, expr_y, expr_z, (param, from, to)) |
Mathematica's ParametricPlot3D |
|
| 3D surface plot of an expression | plot(expr, (var_x, from_x, to_x), (var_y, from_y, to_y)) |
Mathematica's Plot3D |
|
| 3D parametric surface plot | plot(expr_x, expr_y, expr_z, (param1, from1, to1), (param2, from2, to2)) |
Mathematica's ParametricPlot3D |
|
| 2D contour plot | yes | ||
| 3D contour plot | needs better 3D backend | ||
| 2D Density plot | easy to add | ||
| 3D Density plot | needs better 3D backend | ||
| 2D vector field plot | easy to add | ||
| 3D vector field plot | easy to add | ||
| 2D stream lines plot | not too hard to add using scipy integrators | ||
| 3D stream lines plot | not too hard to add using scipy integrators | ||
| 2D stream density plot | ? | ||
| 3D stream density plot | ?, needs better 3D backend | ||
| Implicit 2D equations | maybe a GSoC project for an efficient version (working on only a subset of all sympy expressions), not too hard to add inefficient version using scipy optimisation routines and/or sampling | ||
| Implicit 2D inequalities | maybe a GSoC project for an efficient version, not too hard to add inefficient version using sampling | ||
| Implicit 3D equations | not too hard to add inefficient version using scipy optimisation routines and/or sampling | ||
| Implicit 3D inequalities | not too hard to add inefficient version using sampling, need better 3D backend | ||
| Maps of the complex plane | easy to add | ||
| 2D linear maps (matrix multiplications) | easy to add | ||
| Integral curves | just an alias for stream plots | ||
| Geometry entities | ? | ||
| Plots over -oo, +oo | not implemented | Maple's implementation |
Remark about "needs better 3D backend": Matplotlib does not work well with volumes (as opposed to surfaces). The alternative is Mayavi.
TODO
TODO
TODO
There is none. Compare to what Maple has.
At the moment the number of samples is fixed (it can be changed by the user), which causes problems with oscillating functions.