

John Hunter [matplotlib.sourceforge.net] has died. - archgoon
http://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/ipython-dev/2012-August/010135.html

======
gammarator
Numfocus is collecting donations in his memory for the education of his three
daughters: <http://numfocus.org/johnhunter/>

~~~
dreeves
My startup uses matplotlib and I was quite affected reading the story of John
Hunter's last days and hours. (It also got my attention as I happen to have an
elevated colon cancer risk.)

So a small donation is a no-brainer [and done] but I want to do something
more. We're only recently ramen-profitable so I'm thinking it would be nice to
donate some shares. Beeminder's success will continue to be thanks in part to
John Hunter's work (even if we port to d3.js which I confess is in our plans)
so I like the idea of having my donation proportional to the magnitude of that
success.

I suspect it's difficult to formally donate shares so I'm actually writing
this comment as a commitment device to honor the following:

I, Daniel Reeves, hereby earmark 0.1% of my own Beeminder equity for the John
Hunter Memorial Fund, to be converted and paid as cash within 5 years of
today, 2012-08-30.

~~~
check441
Also, anyone with colon cancer in their family should please do a colonoscopy
every 10 years from the age of 40 to greatly reduce the likelihood of not
detecting colon cancer early. Early detection has a recovery rate of near
100%.

~~~
nnnnni
Wow, ONLY every ten years if they're at high risk? I'd think that you'd want
to do it at least every five years, if not every year.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Colon cancer typically grows slowly. If you are at risk, and get a colonoscopy
at 40 _and they find polyps_ then they will have you come back to be sure they
don't come back.

Basically at risk people should get checked early and you're at risk if you've
had an immediate family member have polyps or cancer.

------
ivany
I used matplotlib extensively when I was doing research back in school. It
even made it into the work I published (after I got ridiculed for using excel
to make plots). Being able to pre-process my data with numpy and generate all
of my plots automatically via matplotlib calls kept me sane.

John's contribution to the Python community was extensive (I don't know of any
comparable plotting tools) and won't be forgotten.

------
stochastician
John Hunter was, like me, a neuroscientist on paper. There were times when he
helped me figure out how to best plot spike rasters (neural data) in
matplotlib. I remember him leaving academia for industry (quant finance at the
time), and discussing how he really needed to be able to provide more for his
family. Those discussions ultimately stuck with me, and now having left
academia myself, I often looked back on them as catalyzing. Thank you, John.

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oscilloscope
He recently gave a talk reflecting on matplotlib: "Lessons from middle age"

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3lTby5RI54>

Edit: At the end, he discusses the challenge of client-side rendering to make
visualizations like the New York Times.

d3.js comes to mind, a javascript library with a structured approach to
scales, axes, projections, layouts and data-binding with SVG. The project has
12 years of work in it according to ohloh:

<http://d3js.org/> <http://www.ohloh.net/p/d3js>

I wonder what middle age will look like for javascript communities.

~~~
oscilloscope
A spiral for John: <http://bl.ocks.org/3543186>

------
viraj_shah
I think today it is quite understated the value of giving back to the
programming community. It is so easy for people to consume and take the
information online but it is just as important that people contribute as much
as they can back to community to continue the cycle. John is a perfect example
of someone who went beyond the call.

------
clemesha
I had the pleasure to work with John some a while ago when I was part of the
Sage Math project.

Very saddened to hear this news :(

(Just donated. I'd urge anyone who has benefited from John's amazing
Matplotlib project to considering donating to help his family).

~~~
ylem
I found matplotlib to be extremely helpful in my research...I also just
donated.

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robocaptain
I see lots of articles like this but none have ever hit me like this one.
matplotlib saved my ass so many times and there is no doubt in my mind it was
a huge factor in my career success.

Having a daughter in December and all I want to do now is call my doctor for a
checkup.

Thank you John.

------
iamandrus
Very sad to hear. His contributions to the Python community will never be
forgotten.

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linuxlizard
I use matplotlib almost every day for work and school. I'm very sad to hear of
his passing.

Donating to help. His work helps me so much, this is the least I can do.

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wgrover
As Fernando noted, if you use matplotlib regularly, check the price on a
MATLAB license (looks like USD $2150.00 for a single commercial user) and then
consider donating to John's family: <http://numfocus.org/johnhunter/>

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jeiting
matplotlib got me through my physics undergrad degree.

I didn't know about this man until today but I still feel a loss.

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hogu
very sad - I will be donating. I would not be doing what I am doing today
without matplotlib - a scientific computing toolchain without a good
visualization component is a non-starter.

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tdicola
Wow very sad news, RIP. I never knew him personally but feel like he gave me
so much through his contributions to the python and scientific computing
community.

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kiba
Did the hospital use a medical checklist? This is a question that I like to
ask everytime a medical procedure went wrong, because a checklist is a very
useful tool in saving lives and preventing medical errors. However, the
medical checklist haven't been adopted as fast as it should.

~~~
mamp
I don't think it is helpful in this situation to insinuate that medical error
was involved, or that Mr Hunter's death was preventable. Also, thinking that a
simple checklist will solve medical error reflects a very simplified view of
the problems in the health care system. There are a lot of smart people in
health, if the solution was simple the problem would have been solved by now.

Not knowing anything beyond the post about Mr Hunter's situation, in general
advanced colon cancer may involve surgery (to prevent blockage) and chemo.
These are risky and have high chances of complications. In this sad situation
there are no good options, only less bad ones. From the post it appears he
fought bravely and was dignified. Very sad.

~~~
beagle3
> I don't think it is helpful in this situation to insinuate that medical
> error was involved, or that Mr Hunter's death was preventable.

I agree.

> Also, thinking that a simple checklist will solve medical error reflects a
> very simplified view of the problems in the health care system.

Indeed, yet, a simple checklist HAS been shown to significantly improve
outcomes:
[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1222261...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122226184)
.

> There are a lot of smart people in health, if the solution was simple the
> problem would have been solved by now.

This is completely and utterly wrong: All stable systems past their transient
stage are generally at a local optimum for their respectively relevant utility
function - which is shaped by the incentive structure.

Unfortunately, the incentive structure in medicine is all about avoiding
liability, then making money, and actual care is a side effect. As a result,
small changes can produce dramatic change in care quality. But (almost by
definition) they increase liability in the short term regardless of merits
(because "that's not standard practice"), and are rarely practiced.

~~~
mamp
I've spent the last 20 years in the area of patient safety and reducing
medical error -- the last 10 years in building technology to assist clinical
staff in improving safety. You are correct in saying the incentives are not
right, but regardless, many people are in health to help people. Reducing
error is hard because the 'system' isn't designed for safety (it basically
isn't designed).

Checklists are used often, but aren't the solution. There are about 100 things
that have to line up to get health right, saying 'checklists _alone_ will
solve it' trivialising the problem.

The challenge is how to improve patient safety while improving clinical
workflows. Everyone is under a lot of pressure and adding more stuff for them
to do just fails.

------
jinmingjian
RIP

------
achompas
.

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taw9
Such a shock to hear this. I was lucky enough to have worked with John at TL.
He was a generous and kind man, always happy to help a novice programmer
advance his or her Python skills. He will be missed. My sincere condolences to
his loved ones.

