rullzer

The last few weeks I have been quite busy since I started with my master. They keep me quite busy and have me write a lot of reports, summaries etc.

Now this is not a problem (latex is your friend) but when there is the need to plot data I always used to switch to some GUI program to plot the graph. That was until last Monday when Roy gave me a quick introduction to GNUplot, and I must say I absolutely love it. It is very easy to deal with. Has tons of options to configure the graph exactly the way you want it. And last but certainly not least it allows me to export the graph as vector graphics. This last part is freaking awesome since then I can keep on zooming in my report (the power of vectors!!!, we need a logo for that or something).

Now I know there are a lot of other plotting programs out their but this one is so power full in its simplicity. However GNUplot does not allow me to create graphs (with nodes and edges). But for this I recently discovered using GraphViz with the extremely simple dot language. This even allows me to in a very simple and fast way construct Finite Automatons without ever having to draw a node myself. I can draw my automaton in less than 1 minute using just 20 lines of code. While drawing it in inkscape or Dia takes me a hell of a lot longer!

So I guess right now I can write most of my reports without a GUI tool. Just vim, GNUplot and graphviz. You should try them…. and love them…