
What D3.js is Not - insraq
http://ruoyusun.com/2014/05/26/what-d3js-is-not.html
======
danso
For web dev beginners, I haven't yet seen a better ramp-up tutorial than Scott
Murray's "Interactive Data Visualization", which is free online:
[http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1230000000345/](http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1230000000345/)

He really emphasizes the low-level at which D3 operates, as you move from
creating shapes with divs and CSS, to eventually learning the D3 framework.
Here's his section on "What [D3] Doesn't Do":
[http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1230000000345/ch02.htm...](http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1230000000345/ch02.html#_what_it_doesn_t_do)

~~~
allenkim67
This book is very good and I highly recommend it if you're just starting out.
But I didn't feel like I really understood how d3 works until I read these two
articles by Mike Bostocks himself.

[http://bost.ocks.org/mike/selection/](http://bost.ocks.org/mike/selection/)

[http://bost.ocks.org/mike/join/](http://bost.ocks.org/mike/join/)

IME, understanding joins and selections is essential when using d3.

------
jrowley
Great rundown. Thank you. Anyone know of a good library for flowcharts in
Angular.js?

I found this: [http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/709340/Implementing-a-
Fl...](http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/709340/Implementing-a-Flowchart-
with-SVG-and-AngularJS)

It looks pretty handy but doesn't have all the functionality I was looking
for.Just thought I'd ask before potentially reinventing the wheel...

~~~
simonsarris
What do you mean "in" Angular?

I write a diagramming library (GoJS -
[http://gojs.net/beta](http://gojs.net/beta)) that can work alongisde Angular:

[http://www.gojs.net/beta/samples/angular.html](http://www.gojs.net/beta/samples/angular.html)

Were you looking for something specific in terms of Angular integration?

~~~
jrowley
My mistake with the "in" part - I meant to say libraries that work well with
Angular.

I actually saw your demo while researching and it more or less what we need,
however the software I'm working on is licensed under new BSD and we were
hoping to distribute for free.

Looks like an excellent library you've built though. Thanks for replying.

------
dmarusic16
At the same time, D3 makes all sorts of smart decisions for you when you're
making charts with it. I'm always pleasantly surprised, for example, by how D3
picks just the right number of tick marks on axes. Mike Bostock has taste and
deep knowledge of how to make good visualizations, and it shows. A similar
library made by a less able person would barf out way uglier charts.

------
trose
The author's assertion that D3 doesn't work with Angular is rather fishy
seeing as there is a book specifically written about using D3 with Angular:
[https://leanpub.com/d3angularjs](https://leanpub.com/d3angularjs)

~~~
mcgannon2007
He doesn't assert that it doesn't work with it. Rather, the author states you
shouldn't interact heavily with the DOM with both Angular and D3 - choose one
to keep things simpler.

------
scotty79
I'm kinda surprised that people didn't turn d3 into single page application
framework. It has much cooler interface than most of the stuff that flies
around these days in that department.

~~~
drewda
The iD editor for OpenStreetMap is a nice example of how to build a large
single-page web application with d3 (and without jQuery, Backbone, or any
other large JS libraries):
[https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD](https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD)

~~~
hnha
And sadly really resource intense and thus laggy on all systems I tried it on
:/

------
dsjoerg
Thanks for this. I've been telling people that D3 is not a charting library
for over a year, but I get the feeling they don't really believe me!

~~~
trose
its an easy misconception to have. Luckily there are charting libraries
written with D3 like nvd3 and rickshaw.

~~~
altcognito
c3js is also pretty good

------
daemonk
D3 is a data binding library. The data, enter, exit cycle is the heart of the
library. You can use it to bind data to any DOM elements.

------
tericho
I quickly discovered the same things about SVG/Canvas when I tried to use it
for a game board. It was a casual project so I didn't search too hard for
other options but I'll take a look at your list you provided. Thanks!

------
zacharyz
D3.js may not itself be a charting library but there are numerous adaptions
that make it easy to work with - especially with angular:
[http://code.shutterstock.com/rickshaw/](http://code.shutterstock.com/rickshaw/)
[http://nvd3.org/](http://nvd3.org/)

------
rnbwd
d3 is very powerful, has an amazing api, and it's incredible library. but my
processor goes insane running trivial d3 animations (macbook pro core-2-duo
2009). with css 3d, webgl, I don't have processor issues, but god-damn the d3
api is one of the best I've ever used for animations

~~~
pornel
D3 is not tied to SVG at all. I only use it with HTML DOM and CSS 3D
properties.

------
pc86
Is ChartJS still actively developed? No substantive Github changes in a year
and the site appears down for me.

~~~
webXL
No. Not on the original repo. There's plenty of activity on forks, but no
solid consensus on a new official repo. See
[https://github.com/nnnick/Chart.js/issues/356](https://github.com/nnnick/Chart.js/issues/356)

The site is up for me. IMO
[http://www.chartjs.org/docs/](http://www.chartjs.org/docs/) is one reason why
the library is so popular, despite its lack of interactivity.

