I was fortunate enough to be requested to review a copy of Philipp K. Janert's Gnuplot in Action before its release - the draft itself is still a work in progress, so this cannot be a full review. Because of this, it will not be scored on the KnowProSE.com scale. Also, humble apologies for the tardiness on this one. I wish I had been slacking off. Instead was really busy with travel and other things, otherwise this would have been up last week.
Graphical analysis of data is increasingly important these days because even looking at the data in a different way can lead to interesting insights. Gnuplot is an impressive application - I have had occasion to use it in the past when doing some R&D, and I admittedly wasted at least half a day fiddling with Gnuplot itself. Why? I don't use it every day - and it is safe to assume that a lot of people who would find it useful may be in the same boat. Therefore, the premise of the book seems sound.
The best way to 'explain' the usefulness of Gnuplot would be from Gnuplot examples themselves. For those of you who don't know what Gnuplot is, here's an introduction quoted from the Gnuplot home page (check out the link in the quotation):
...Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven interactive data and function plotting utility for UNIX, IBM OS/2, MS Windows, DOS, Macintosh, VMS, Atari and many other platforms. The software is copyrighted but freely distributed (i.e., you don't have to pay for it). It was originally intended as to allow scientists and students to visualize mathematical functions and data. It does this job pretty well, but has grown to support many non-interactive uses, including web scripting and integration as a plotting engine for third-party applications like Octave. Gnuplot has been supported and under development since 1986...
Gnuplot supports many types of plots in either 2D and 3D.
It can draw using lines, points, boxes, contours, vector fields, surfaces,
and various associated text. It also supports various specialized plot types.
Demos here.
As someone who has survived made it through the editorial process, I know that the book is not complete. But what I can write about it is rather simple and straightforward:
Gnuplot will be less daunting for the masses.
The author had a troublesome task - taking generic mathematical explanations with a command line bend and making it readable and even interesting to read. I see the finished product as something between an introduction and a reference - and that is a very tough target to hit in a diverse audience. Still, from what I have read it is well on the way for a diverse audience of people who would find Gnuplot useful and - dare I say - fun.
A read through the table of contents gives you an idea of what to expect from the book when it is released:
Part I—Basic gnuplot
Chapter 1 Prelude: Why graphical analysis?
Chapter 2 Essential gnuplot
Chapter 3 Working with data
Chapter 4 Practical mattersPart II—Polishing
Chapter 5 Doing it with style
Chapter 6 Decorations and appearance
Chapter 7 All about axesPart III—Advanced gnuplot
Chapter 8 Three-dimensional plots
Chapter 9 Color
Chapter 10 Advanced plots
Chapter 11 Terminals and gnuplot output
Chapter 12 Scripting and MacrosPart IV—Applications
Chapter 13 Graph types and their applications
Chapter 14 Techniques of graphical analysis
Chapter 15 Epilogue: On graphical analysisAppendix A Obtaining, compiling, and installing gnuplot
Appendix B Gnuplot reference
Appendix C Resources
In all, this is a book that promises to be very useful for people interested in statistical analysis for any number of reasons. Being able to view your data in so many different ways has a lot of potential. And it can be a lot of fun if you're not fumbling through it. The book holds promise in minimizing the fumbling.
For those of you interested in the book, you'll be able to find it through the usual book avenues in Fall of this year - or you can start getting it now by buying a MEAP subscription here.
4/14/2008; Update:More images made available by the author:
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