Gramm: An Innovative Data Visualization Toolbox in MATLAB
Gramm is a popular open-source project hosted on GitHub that facilitates creating complex, publication-quality figures conveniently in MATLAB. It sets out to address the challenging aspects of data visualization and introduces a new level of convenience and ease by preserving the versatility and power of raw InstaGraphics, enhancing the user-friendliness and efficiency.
Project Overview:
The Gramm project, initiated by Pierre Morel in 2016, primarily targets the scientific community that requires robust and versatile data visualization tools. It aims to make data visualization a hassle-free process in MATLAB without requiring a high level of proficiency in coding. With its wide range of features, Gramm provides a means to convey complex data stories in a simple and artistically-pleasing manner that can cater to everyone from beginners to pros in MATLAB.
Project Features:
Gramm prides itself on its simplicity and flexibility, modeling its user interface on R’s ggplot2 and offering a variety of plotting capabilities. It supports line plots, bar graphs, scatter plots, histograms, and more. A unique feature of Gramm is its 'wrap()' function, which allows the creation of small multiple plots. It also provides an avenue to tweak the aesthetics of the figures, including schemes, ticks, legends, and titles. Gramm meets its objectives by ensuring a more intuitive and user-friendly approach to data visualization in MATLAB.
Technology Stack:
The fundamental technology behind Gramm is MATLAB, a high-level language, and interactive environment used extensively for numerical computation, visualization, and programming. The choice of MATLAB stems from its widespread usage in the scientific community, particularly those dealing with large volumes of data such as neuroscientists, engineers, and analysts.
Project Structure and Architecture:
Gramm adopts a modular design strategy. The project is comprised of a core class 'gramm' augmented by multiple auxiliary classes such as 'stat_bin()' and 'geom_line()', enabling users to produce a variety of plots. This structure promotes easy modification and expansion, contributing to Gramm's simplified, user-friendly data visualization solution.
