Rpyplot

R interface to matplotlib via Rcpp using Python 2.7 or 3.

Contains basic working interface to some basic with few options. Tested with Ubuntu 14.10 (System Python 2.7, 3.4) and Windows 7 (Anaconda Python 2.7, 3.4).

Why?

I often use Python and matplotlib for exploring measurement data (from e.g. accelerometers), even if I use R for the actual analysis. The reason is that I like to be able to flexibly zoom into different parts of the plot using the mouse and this works well for me with matplotlib. So I decided to try to call matplotlib from R using Rcpp and Python/C API. It was surprisingly simple to get it working so I put together this package.

Install

Install using devtools.

Ubuntu

You'll need to have Python with headers (python-dev in Ubuntu) and matplotlib:

sudo apt-get install python-dev python-matplotlib

Use devtools to install from R.

library(devtools)
install_github("mpastell/Rpyplot")

Windows

You'll need to have Rtools and Python with matplotlib installed and in your path. You'll also need to have libpythonXX.a in "$PYTHON\libs". You can use libpython from Christoph Gohlke's repository. Make sure you use the same architecture for R and Python.

Install libpython using pip (the version needs to match the install Python version, the url below is for Python3.4)

pip install wheel
pip install http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/6icuform/libpython-3.4.3-cp34-none-win_amd64.whl

library(devtools)
install_github("mpastell/Rpyplot", args = "--no-multiarch")

Use

To get started see:

library(Rpyplot)
example(pyplot)
example(pystep)
example(pycontourf)

Development

I developed the package to do quick interactive analysis and its not meant to interface all of pyplot. I will add more features to the package when I need them. If you want add functionality please do so and submit a pull request. You can add new plots and options easily in R (see R/Plot.R) without using C++. I have written a post to Rcpp gallery that tries to explain the C++ side of the code.