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 New Release |
| Posted by Adrian C on May-23-2018 01:34 |
|
Hi,
Just curious about when your next release will be. In another thread you had mentioned : "major release of ChartDirector in Q2 2018". Is this still the case and would you be able to give an idea what will be included in the next release?
Thank You |
| Re: New Release |
| Posted by MarkZB on Jun-21-2018 02:34 |
|
| Also curious. Fantastic solution for charting. Anything on the horizon? eg in 2018 |
| Re: New Release |
| Posted by Peter Kwan on Jun-22-2018 01:10 |
|
Hi,
Currently, we are planning a minor release in Q3 2018. It is basically a "foundation" update that allows us to create more sophisticated sample code. Some of the features are:
- Supporting using "resources" for images
ChartDirector supports using images in various ways - as background image, pattern colors, embedding images in text using CDML, as custom scatter symbols, etc.. Currently, those images are expected to be image files. By supporting using resources, the images can be embedded as resources in the executable, so there is no need to redistribute extra image files.
In addition to resources, DrawArea or images generated on the fly in memory will also be supported as "input" images to ChartDirector.
- Fine tuning of user interactions (eg. Mouse Capture support for PlotArea mouse events)
This will make it easier to develop "drag to draw/move" type of user interaction. We probably will develop some examples that allows "drag to measure" (eg. drag a line to measure the x and y distances between the end points).
- The WebChartViewer will be updated to support using the "data protocol" to directly stream the image to the browser, eliminating the need for session variables. This has advantage in certain server farm or cloud configurations.
In future, advanced sample code will likely to be released in the "Library" section of our web site:
http://www.advsofteng.com/tutorials/extra.html
We plan to add a reference implementation of a zoomable and scrollable interactive financial chart. There may also be an example for a "spectrum analyzer" type of real-time chart. (Instead of append new data points at the right side of the chart, in a spectrum analyzer, the entire chart is updated in real-time.)
Regards
Peter Kwan |
| Re: New Release |
| Posted by MarkZB on Jun-22-2018 02:32 |
|
| Sounds good. Thanks Peter. |
| Re: New Release |
| Posted by Danieldeparis on Jun-27-2018 00:15 |
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Hi Peter,
Thanks for the feedback. I belong to the developpers who have been using CD for a long period of time and cherish its smartly crafted API. A large crowd:-)
>ChartDirector supports using images in various ways - as background image, pattern >colors, embedding images in text using CDML, as custom scatter symbols, etc.. Currently, >those images are expected to be image files. By supporting using resources, the images >can be embedded as resources in the executable, so there is no need to redistribute >extra image files.
Sounds great. Would be nice if that could extend to font resources as well. But I understand that this may be a bit too specific!
>In addition to resources, DrawArea or images generated on the fly in memory will also be >supported as "input" images to ChartDirector.
Nice. This will certainly make CD-related code more robust.
Some additions and or enhancements to the drawarea primitives would be great. But I understand this may not really be possible. Since drawarea posssibly map to win/unix and other base system calls?
Daniel |
| Re: New Release |
| Posted by Peter Kwan on Jun-28-2018 02:25 |
|
Hi Danieldeparis,
Thanks for the suggestion. Font resources are certainly useful too. We will consider that.
Are you developing C++ applications that need to run on Linux? On Windows and Mac OS X, ChartDirector can use OS fonts, so in many case, font files are not needed (unless you need to use custom fonts).
For the DrawArea, for the C++ edition, except for the parts that process fonts and for multi-threading support, it does not use any OS specific code. The DrawArea does have some additional drawing primitives that we use internally in our code (eg. splines, shapes with compound paths, angular gradient, ....), but we have not developed them into public API. (Develop features that we can use in our own code is one thing. Develop features that can be used by everyone and promise not to change the API in the future is much more difficult.)
Regards
Peter Kwan |
| Re: New Release |
| Posted by Danieldeparis on Jun-28-2018 23:19 |
|
Hi Peter,
Peter Kwan wrote:
The DrawArea does have some additional drawing primitives that we use internally in our code (eg. splines, shapes with compound paths, angular gradient, ....), but we have not developed them into public API.
Thanks for the great information
Develop features that we can use in our own code is one thing. Develop features that can be used by everyone and promise not to change the API in the future is much more difficult.
Yep I can understand that perfectly. The CD API is stable and largely orthogonal and we can appreciate the need for organization... But well, I'd be glad we could have some minors additions such as rounded boxes. The dynamic layer is a joy to work with and, at this junction, of course we rely on the drawarea.
Thanks for the good work. CD is a pleasure to work with!
Daniel |
| Re: New Release / access drawarea "extra primitives" (splines, shapes with compound paths, angular gradient, ....)? |
| Posted by Danieldeparis on May-02-2019 16:09 |
|
Peter Kwan wrote:
For the DrawArea, for the C++ edition, except for the parts that process fonts and for multi-threading support, it does not use any OS specific code. The DrawArea does have some additional drawing primitives that we use internally in our code (eg. splines, shapes with compound paths, angular gradient, ....), but we have not developed them into public API. (Develop features that we can use in our own code is one thing. Develop features that can be used by everyone and promise not to change the API in the future is much more difficult.)
Hi Peter,
We tend to use the Drawarea drawing primitives extensively no as a way to extend the reach of our CD-based plotting material. Any chance we could get an access to these "extra primitives" (ie splines, shapes with compound paths, angular gradient, ....).
We currently use the 6.3.0.0 version and are quite happy with the product reach and stability but we'd definitely appreciate to have an extended grammar for the uquitous drawarea. We'd be quite glad to add "curves" and more our drawarea-based lines and boxes!
Kind regards for the great work. Chartdirector support of both vector-based output AND raster formats is an absolute joy to work with:-)
Daniel
PS: we use the COM-based stuff |
| Re: New Release |
| Posted by Peter Kwan on Feb-06-2019 01:53 |
|
Hi Michael,
Currently, we have a very basic half-completed spectrum analyzer test code in C#/Windows Forms, which uses the default sound input device (typically the primary mic) as the input.
We found that the charting part of the code is very simple. It is just a simple line chart, which is the same code in the standard ChartDirector distribution. The complexity is in obtain the audio input from the driver and performing FFT, which contains the vast majority of the code.
We feel the sample code is not very useful for demonstrating charting functions as the code is more about audio processing than charting, so we probably will not develop it further.
In brief, the code is just a loop:
- read data - FFT - draw chart - read data - FFT - draw chart.
The "read data" and "FFT" contains the bulk of the code, while the draw chart is essentially the same as the "Simple Line Chart" sample code.
Regards
Peter Kwan |
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