braillegraph 0.10

Description:

braillegraph 0.10

A library for creating graphs using Unicode braille characters
Someone on reddit posted a screenshot of their xmobar setup, which used
braille characters to show the loads of their four processor cores, as
well as several other metrics. I was impressed that you could fit so
much data into a single line. I immediately set out to implement braille
bar graphs for myself.
The characters this script outputs are in the Unicode Braille Patterns
section, code points 0x2800 through 0x28FF. Not all fonts
support these characters, so if you can’t see the examples below check
your font settings.

Installation
This package is hosted on PyPI, so installation should be as simple as
% pip install braillegraph
Note that this package requires at least Python 3.3, so if your
default Python installation is still Python 2, make sure you use
pip3.
If you want to install from this repository, download it and run
% python setup.py install
Again, use python3 if necessary.


Usage
There are two ways to use this package: imported in Python code, or as a
command line script.
To use the package in Python, import it and use the vertical_graph
and horizontal_graph functions.
>>> from braillegraph import vertical_graph, horizontal_graph
>>> vertical_graph([3, 1, 4, 1])
'⡯⠥'
>>> vertical_graph([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
'⣷⣄\n⠛⠛⠓'
>>> print(vertical_graph([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]))
⣷⣄
⠛⠛⠓
>>> horizontal_graph([3, 1, 4, 1])
'⣆⣇'
>>> horizontal_graph([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
'⠀⠀⣠\n⣠⣾⣿'
>>> print(horizontal_graph([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]))
⠀⠀⣠
⣠⣾⣿
Alternately, the arguments can be passed directly:
>>> vertical_graph(3, 1, 4, 1)
'⡯⠥'
>>> horizontal_graph(3, 1, 4, 1)
'⣆⣇'
To use the package as a script, run it as
% python -m braillegraph vertical 3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6
⡯⠥
⣿⣛⣓⠒⠂
% python -m braillegraph horizontal 3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6
⠀⠀⢀
⠀⠀⣸⢠
⣆⣇⣿⣼
For a description of the arguments and flags, run
% python -m braillegraph --help


Functions
The following functions are defined in the braillegraph package.
This documentation is also available via the built-in Python help
function.

vertical_graph
vertical_graph(*args, sep='\n')
Consume an iterable of integers and produce a vertical bar graph using
braille characters.
The graph is vertical in that its dependent axis is the vertical axis.
Thus each value is represented as a row running left to right, and
values are listed top to bottom.
If the iterable contains more than four integers, it will be chunked
into groups of four, separated with newlines by default.
>>> vertical_graph([1, 2, 3, 4])
'⣷⣄'
>>> vertical_graph([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
'⣷⣄\n⠛⠛⠓'
>>> print(vertical_graph([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]))
⣷⣄
⠛⠛⠓
Alternately, the arguments can be passed directly:
>>> vertical_graph(1, 2, 3, 4)
'⣷⣄'
The optional sep parameter controls how groups are separated. If
sep is not passed (or if it is None), they are put on their own
lines. For example, to keep everything on one line, space could be used:
>>> vertical_graph(3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, sep=' ')
'⡯⠥ ⣿⣛⣓⠒⠂'


horizontal_graph
horizontal_graph(*args)
Consume an iterable of integers and produce a horizontal bar graph using
braille characters.
The graph is horizontal in that its dependent axis is the horizontal
axis. Thus each value is represented as a column running bottom to top,
and values are listed left to right.
The graph is anchored to the bottom, so columns fill in from the bottom
of the current braille character and the next character is added on top
when needed. For columns with no dots, the blank braille character is
used, not a space character.
>>> horizontal_graph([1, 2, 3, 4])
'⣠⣾'
>>> horizontal_graph([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
'⠀⠀⣠\n⣠⣾⣿'
>>> print(horizontal_graph([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]))
⠀⠀⣠
⣠⣾⣿
Alternately, the arguments can be passed directly:
>>> horizontal_graph(1, 2, 3, 4)
'⣠⣾'



Testing
To run the unit tests, use the unittest module from the standard
Python library.
% python -m unittest
This will automatically discover and run unit tests from the
braillegraph.tests package. The package also supports the
doctest module, which pulls examples out of docstrings.
% python -m doctest braillegraph/braillegraph.py


License
The code is licensed under the BSD 2-clause license. Please feel free to
fork it, mess around with it, or submit issues and pull requests.