What graphing packages/APIs exist for Ruby?

Question

Similar: What graphing packages/APIs exist for Perl?

I'm doing some research into online graphing packages for different languages and would like to know what current, up-to-date graphing packages there are for Ruby which are worth investigating.

Minimum desired capabilities should include the kind which Google offers through its API.

A brief synopsis of the key benefits of the recommended package / API would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I have the following bookmarked for investigation when time permits:

Flash-based

I haven't tried any of these yet, but they all look promising if you want snappy animation:

• amCharts
• FusionCharts
• Open Flash Chart
• Ziya gem

Google Charts

Both gems are somewhat works-in-progress. I've tried both in some simple cases, both worked fairlyl well, although I think a DSL-style alternative would be a winner. (Note to self).

• Googlecharts gem
• gchartrb gem

RMagick based

I am Windows-based, which seems to be a Bad Thing for RMagick installation. I got it working - briefly - then it stopped. In that time I managed to try gruff, which worked nicely enough. But the library is too much hassle for my short temper!

• Gruff gem

Answer 2

RubyVis

Ruby port of Protovis library According to the protovis site

Protovis composes custom views of data with simple marks such as bars and dots. Unlike low-level graphics libraries that quickly become tedious for visualization, Protovis defines marks through dynamic properties that encode data, allowing inheritance, scales and layouts to simplify construction. As Protovis, Rubyvis is free and open-source, provided under the BSD License. Its delivers SVG natively, which could be exported to PNG, JPEG and others graphics formats