Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
andpowertransformationsbyadjustingacontrol.hefirstgeneralsystemformanip-
ulating high-dimensional data was PRIM- , developed by Fishkeller, Friedman and
Tukey ( ),and providing dynamic toolsfor projecting, rotating (in -D),isolating
(identifying subsets) and masking data in up to dimensions. hese were quite in-
fluential, but remained one-of-a-kind, 'proof-of-concept'systems. By the mid- s,
as workstations and display technology became cheaper and more powerful, desk-
top sotware for interactive graphics became more widely available (e.g. MacSpin,
Xgobi). Many of these developments to that point are detailed in the chapters of
Dynamic Graphics for Statistics (Cleveland and McGill, ).
In the s,a number of these ideas were brought together to provide more gen-
eralsystemsfordynamic,interactive graphics,combinedwithdatamanipulation and
analysis in coherent and extensible computing environments. hecombination of all
these factorswasmorepowerfulandinfluential than the sumof theirparts. Lisp-Stat
(Tierney, )anditsprogeny(Arc,CookandWeisberg, ;ViSta,Young, b),
for example, provided an easily extensible object-oriented environment for statisti-
cal computing. In these systems, widgets (sliders, selection boxes, pick lists, etc.),
graphs, tables, statistical models and the user all communicated through messages,
acteduponbywhoeverwasadesignated'listener,'andhadamethodtorespond.Most
of the ideas and methods behind present-day interactive graphics are described and
illustrated in Young et al. ( ). Other chapters in this Handbook provide current
perspectives on other aspects of interactive graphics.
Statistical Historiography
1.3
As mentioned at the outset, this review is based on the information collected for the
Milestones Project, which I regard (subject to some caveats) as a relatively compre-
hensive corpusofthesignificant developments inthehistoryofdata visualization. As
such,itisofinterest toconsiderwhatlightmodernmethodsofstatistics andgraphics
can shed on this history, a self-referential question we call 'statistical historiography'
(Friendly, ). In return, this offers other ways to view this history.
History as Data
1.3.1
Historical events, by their nature, are typically discrete, but marked with dates or
ranges of dates, and some description - numeric, textual, or classified by descrip-
tors (who, what, where, how much and so forth). Amongst the first to recognize that
history could be treated as data and portrayed visually, Joseph Priestley ( ; )
developed the idea of depicting the lifespans of famous people by horizontal lines
along a time scale. His enormous (
m)anddetailedChart of Biog-
raphy showed two thousand names from B.C. to A.D. by horizontal lines
from birth to death, using dots at either end to indicate ranges of uncertainty. Along
the vertical dimension, Priestly classified these individuals, e.g.,as statesmen or men
of learning. A small fragment of this chart is shown in Fig. . .
t.,or.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search