README.txt

.. contents::

=====
PyCha
=====

Pycha is a very simple Python package for drawing charts using the great
`Cairo <http://www.cairographics.org/>`_ library. Its goals are:

* Lightweight
* Simple to use
* Nice looking with default values
* Customization

It won't try to draw any possible chart on earth but draw the most common ones
nicely. There are some other options you may want to look at like
`pyCairoChart <http://bettercom.de/de/pycairochart>`_.

Pycha is based on `Plotr <http://solutoire.com/plotr/>`_ which is based on
`PlotKit <http://www.liquidx.net/plotkit/>`_. Both libraries are written in
JavaScript and are great for client web programming. I needed the same for the
server side so that's the reason I ported Plotr to Python. Now we can deliver
charts to people with JavaScript disabled or embed them in PDF reports.

Pycha is distributed under the terms of the `GNU Lesser General Public License
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html>`_.

Documentation
-------------

You can find Pycha's documentation at http://packages.python.org/pycha


Development
-----------

You can get the last bleeding edge version of pycha by getting a clone of
the Mercurial repository::

  hg clone https://bitbucket.org/lgs/pycha

Don't forget to check the
`Release Notes <http://packages.python.org/pycha/release-notes.html>`_
for each version to learn the new features and incompatible changes.

Contact
-------

There is a mailing list about PyCha at http://groups.google.com/group/pycha
You can join it to ask questions about its use or simply to talk about its
development. Your ideas and feedback are greatly appreciated!