Re: [guppi-list] Re: Radical suggestion/question

[Jon Trowbridge <trow emccta com>]

Just a quick reply, then I'm going to get back to coding:

On Thu, Jan 27, 2000 at 05:07:07PM -0800, Conrad Steenberg wrote:
> Well personally I always get requests to alter plots in some way that just
> cries out for some dtp solution. Eg. "draw an arrow pointing out this data
> point" or "label this part of the line with an X". 

The basic unit of stuff in a Guppi plot window is something I call a
"plot element".  Right now the only type of plot element is the
scatter plot element, but the most important parts of the abstraction
are already in the code.

Plot elements know how to do certain things: they can create canvas
items representing themselves, and they can create dialogs to edit
their own state.  Eventually they'll also carry around geometry
information that will let them arrange themselves reasonably on the
canvas.  And they'll know how to properly respond when they are
clicked on in various ways.  Other functionality will, of course, be
added as necessary.  (This is all already plug-in-ified, so adding new
plot elements should be easy.)

Though it is an oversimplification, it isn't too wrong to think
"plot element" == "canvas item".  So adding arrow plot elements, label
plot elements, etc. that can be easily added/removed/moved around by
either a user or a guile/python/whatever script should really not be
difficult at all.

-JT

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