Chart.xkcd
Dev tools
charting library
SHOW HN2019
How HN took it
6 positive, 6 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 10 critical, out of 23 comments about the project. Thread score -0.15.
Idea: 1 for, 5 againstDocs: 0 for, 2 againstDesign: 2 for, 0 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Charts look charming and the sketchy style conveys that trends matter more than precise numbers
From 2 comments
From a usability perspective, "sketchy" or "cartoony" charts actually serve a purpose. To me, they communicate "the trend is important here, not the precise numbers". This can…
timqian on HNI agree. It's the same approach with sketchy mockups for web pages. It tells you unequivocally that you should not focus on the design itself. I find it very powerful.
Lucadg on HN
Bundle size reduced from over 400kb to about 66KB after the maker's update
From 2 comments
Updates: the total js file is around 66KB now https://github.com/timqian/chart.xkcd/pull/7
timqian on HNGreat job!
SimeVidas on HN
Objections
JavaScript bundle is too large for a single chart
From 1 comment
Almost 1 MB of JavaScript transferred to render a single chart? I am afraid that is not acceptable. I mean no disrespect whatsoever to the author of the library, but sending that…
SimeVidas on HN
Does not render lines in Safari or on iPhone Chrome
From 2 comments
Looks cool! On safari in Codepen it does not render any lines though, only text is visible.
yoz-y on HNSame in chrome on iPhone. I love this library btw, good job! :)
keyadams on HN
License file was missing from the repo; font licensing may conflict with MIT
From 3 comments
The github page doesn't have the license?
cogburnd02 on HNClaims MIT[1] but a copy of the licence text should be included for this to be valid. [1] https://github.com/timqian/chart.xkcd/blob/master/package.json#L25
tempay on HNSeems like merging `xkcd-script.ttf`[0] directly into `chart.xkcd` repository may violate `xkcd-font` licensing.[1] CC-SA-NC-licensed thing could not be merged into MIT-licensed…
app4soft on HN
Requests
Support for X,Y coordinate data for curves
From 2 comments
I see how to provide the Y axis data for the labels but is there a way to use X labels like 1 2 3 but then provide (X,Y) coords for minima and maxima [(1.1, 3.2), (4.8, 7.5),…
yubiox on HNThis is on my plan, should be done in next release(within several days), you can watch the repo to get notification about it
timqian on HN
Directed graph support
From 1 comment
Any chance for directed graph support? Basically nothing does them out-of-box/batteries-included even remotely nice-looking but they're very useful to represent quite a few…
Avamander on HN
Server-side or build-step SVG generation
From 2 comments
Almost 1 MB of JavaScript transferred to render a single chart? I am afraid that is not acceptable. I mean no disrespect whatsoever to the author of the library, but sending that…
SimeVidas on HNAuthor here, thanks for mentioning about this issue here. The lib size is over 400kb because I imported the whole d3 lib into it, but actually only using small fraction of it. I…
timqian on HN
Questions
Why create a new library instead of adding this style to an existing one like Chart.js
From 2 comments
Looks nice but why create a whole new plotting library for this rather than adding it to one of the existing ones (eg. Chart.js)?
DangerousPie on HNThanks to d3, creating a new plotting library is not so hard https://github.com/d3/d3-shape You can regard this library as adding styles to d3 instead of chart.js
timqian on HN
Is the license MIT
From 2 comments
What is the license of the library?
dedosk on HNit is MIT, I have added it to the repo
timqian on HN
Alternatives named
Rough.js
From 1 comment
For general SVG "sketchy" effect, Rough.js is a very cool library: https://roughjs.com/ https://github.com/pshihn/rough/ https://roughjs.com/examples/bar-chart.html is an example…
sheetjs on HN
xkcd-style matplotlib
From 1 comment
Matplotlib has this too! https://matplotlib.org/3.1.1/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.xkcd.html
risubramanian on HN
xkcdgraphs.com (D3)
From 1 comment
There’s also a D3 version already that also has a hosted version: http://xkcdgraphs.com/
dewey on HN
R xkcd package on ggplot2
From 1 comment
Also an R package exists to do this on top of ggplot2: http://xkcd.r-forge.r-project.org/
samch93 on HN