Comment Feed for Channel 9 - John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data http://ak.channel9.msdn.com/ch9/CE6F/C599EAAC-6296-4C90-AFA3-9E7E017ECE6F/JohnPlattMSRShoOverview_100_ch9.jpg Channel 9 - John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data Sho is an interactive environment for data analysis and scientific computing that lets you seamlessly connect scripts (in IronPython) with compiled code (in .NET) to enable fast and flexible prototyping. The environment includes powerful and efficient libraries for linear algebra as well as data visualization that can be used from any .NET language, as well as a feature-rich interactive shell for rapid development. Here, we meet the lead researcher behind Sho - John Platt.  Sho is very, very cool and you can use it's powerful computational facilities from any managed language (or from C++/CLI). I highly recommend that you download and start playing with Sho, regardless of whether or not you program in Python. Props to John and his small team of talented developers! en Wed, 22 May 2013 10:11:13 GMT Wed, 22 May 2013 10:11:13 GMT Rev9 Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data This looks an awful lot like SciPy [1] and NumPy [2] (admitedly without the .NET integration)...thoughts?

 

[1]: http://www.scipy.org/

[2]: http://numpy.scipy.org/

posted by myeaney

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634323613850000000 Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:23:05 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634323613850000000 myeaney Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data The more I see of sho, the more interested I become.  My own work involves a lot of the same issues that led to the development of sho.  I really need to find some time (Ihave NO idea when) to play around with it and find out what problems it can solve for me. 

posted by ryanb

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634323646580000000 Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:17:38 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634323646580000000 ryanb Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data Very interesting project. Reminds me of Python(x,y), but with all the .NET goodness (tools, libraries). The managed MKL wrapper could proof to be actually very useful for my work.

Are the plotting capabilities comparable to that of Gnuplot/Matplotlib? Does it support exporting plots to, say, SVG or PDF? Or is it currently aimed at at interactive visualization only?

Python is certainly a nice language, but personally I'd prefer a nice and clean, functional, F# interface. If I find some time, I got to play around a little bit to see what that could look like.

posted by Novox

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324056360000000 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:40:36 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324056360000000 Novox Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data

, Novox wrote

Are the plotting capabilities comparable to that of Gnuplot/Matplotlib? Does it support exporting plots to, say, SVG or PDF? Or is it currently aimed at at interactive visualization only?

Python is certainly a nice language, but personally I'd prefer a nice and clean, functional, F# interface. If I find some time, I got to play around a little bit to see what that could look like.

I would like to see support for DrawingML (given that most of the plotting I do ends up in Office anyway), but I also haven't had the time to play with it yet.

Thanks to the .NET integration you should be able to use it with F# very easily, but I am also confused at why they choose Python instead of F#.

posted by giovanni

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324297670000000 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:22:47 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324297670000000 giovanni Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data
Thanks to the .NET integration you should be able to use it with F# very easily, but I am also confused at why they choose Python instead of F#.

Probably because F# wasn't available back when they started working on sho.  Plus, Python has a much wider user base.  Not many people even know F# exists, much less want to do any functional programming.  I do think F# would a very good language from which to use sho, among others.  F# is easily covered by the .NET interface.  The Python interface just adds another option.

 

posted by ryanb

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324319160000000 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:58:36 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324319160000000 ryanb Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data

, ryanb wrote


*snip*

Probably because F# wasn't available back when they started working on sho.  Plus, Python has a much wider user base.  Not many people even know F# exists, much less want to do any functional programming.  I do think F# would a very good language from which to use sho, among others.  F# is easily covered by the .NET interface.  The Python interface just adds another option.

 


Also, as John said when I asked him about F#, the target of this tool was initially scientists, folks who use Python daily to script analytical prototypes (mathematical or data analytic lines of code that execute without the overhead and ceremony of composing code in some full blown static OO model)...

IronPython solved two important problems for them: 1) Python is a widely-used scripting language for fast protyping in the Sho shell and 2) it seamlessly integrates with the the .NET Framework and its robust BCL.

We also talked about PowerShell and if this could have been implemented in that world. The key point is that Python made the most sense and IronPython mad the decision even easier...

C

posted by Charles

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324348160000000 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:46:56 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324348160000000 Charles Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data Great interview, @Charles, as usual !!!

@Novox, since it is .NET chart (plot) it probably inherits from UIElement, for which you may capture a bitmap.

Here is an example for that:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa969775.aspx

Then you may convert images to PDF using Microsoft Report Viewer.

Here is an example for that:

http://isolvable.blogspot.com/2010/12/converting-images-to-pdf.html

blessings.

P.S. something is wrong with "Returns".

posted by ivan_

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324432530000000 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:07:33 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634324432530000000 ivan_ Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data @ivan_: Thanks for the suggestion. I would still prefer a vector-based format, though (easier post-processing + better quality when scaled).

The sho libraries are actually quite accessible from F#.

let shoMat = ArrayRandom.RandomDoubleArrayNorm(10000, 10000)
let invMat = shoMat.Inv()   // calls into the MKL, if SHODIR envvar is set correctly

Not much more overhead than the Matlab version, but equally performant, statically typed and with superior tooling support. I'm looking forward to new sho versions Big Smile

posted by Novox

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634325131830000000 Sat, 05 Feb 2011 14:33:03 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634325131830000000 Novox Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data posted by Gigi

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634325491880000000 Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:33:08 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634325491880000000 Gigi Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data sho looks really  cool although im firmly planted in the use-the-libraries-from-c# camp Smiley are those slides with the c# examples available somewhere?

posted by aL_

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634326008440000000 Sun, 06 Feb 2011 14:54:04 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634326008440000000 aL_ Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data @Novox: true. But you can also scale visual using ScaleTransform (if it is WPF control) before capturing it into bitmap thus getting a higher resolution.

I have not tried this but you may try capturing visual into WMF or some other vector format.

You may also pass data directly to a report viewer chart (this is more involved for dynamic types of charts), but then you get vector charts, when rendering report to PDF you will need to specify higher resolution.

posted by ivan_

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634327144380000000 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:27:18 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634327144380000000 ivan_ Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data

, aL_ wrote

sho looks really  cool although im firmly planted in the use-the-libraries-from-c# camp Smiley are those slides with the c# examples available somewhere?

It's like using any other external managed assembly... http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/sho/shoexternalapis.aspx

C

posted by Charles

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634327193850000000 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:49:45 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634327193850000000 Charles Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data @ivan_: A Sho plot object has a SaveImage(filename) method, so you can save to any of the standard raster formats (jpg, png, etc.), and we also made it save to .eps (for inclusion into TeX papers)

--- John

 

posted by shoteam

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634327197470000000 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:55:47 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634327197470000000 shoteam Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data @shoteam: this is great! 

Then for @Novox it will be even easier to convert plots/charts to PDF Smiley, since there is no need to figure out how to capture capture them as image!

posted by ivan_

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634327833510000000 Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:35:51 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634327833510000000 ivan_ Re: John Platt: Introduction to Sho - A Playground for Data I love the easy integration of data visualization.  Might consider looking at the recent PowerShell samples by Doug Finke that output to HTML/jQuery, but layering in jQuery visualization libraries. 
 
He's from my industry sector, financial services, and we also work with mountains of data quickly and often in an ad-hoc manner in reaction to world events.
 
http://www.dougfinke.com/blog/index.php/2011/02/15/how-to-send-powershell-output-to-a-jquery-interactive-datatable-in-a-web-browser/

posted by yzorg

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634337355110000000 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 18:05:11 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Charles/John-Platt-Introduction-to-Sho#c634337355110000000 yzorg