Version: 2021-06-07
Feature evaluation of data visualization tools
To contribute, please make a branch (e.g. named after your GitHub persona), committing to it, and issue PRs against main branch.
Please add tools (columns), and features (rows) as needed.
Suggested evaluation: + means yes, - means no, n/a means does not apply, empty means not evaluated/checked/determined yet.
| ↓ Feature / Viz Tool → | Aladin Lite | WWT / pywwt | Firefly | Glue | ESASky | Vaex | js9 | TOPCAT | yt | add others... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interfaces | ||||||||||
| Runs in browser | ||||||||||
| Runs in notebook | ||||||||||
| Exposes API | ||||||||||
| Scriptable (e.g. functions/buttons/menus) | ||||||||||
| Image formats | ||||||||||
| HiPS maps | ||||||||||
| FITS files | ||||||||||
| PNG/JPG images | ||||||||||
| Image layer features | ||||||||||
| Image layers with controllable opacity | ||||||||||
| Number of supported layers | ||||||||||
| Zooming and panning | ||||||||||
| Zoom in/out with clickable buttons | ||||||||||
| Zoom in/out with mouse clicks into canvas | ||||||||||
| Zoom in/out with mouse wheel | ||||||||||
| Zoom in/out with keyboard | ||||||||||
| Seamless transition from HiPS to FITS when zooming | ||||||||||
| Pan with mouse | ||||||||||
| Pan with keyboard arrows | ||||||||||
| Overlays | ||||||||||
| Select a pre-defined catalog to overlay | ||||||||||
| Upload custom catalog to overlay | ||||||||||
| Number of shown markers is progressive with zoom level | ||||||||||
| Performance with very large number of markers | ||||||||||
| Can a limit on number of displayed markers be configured? | ||||||||||
| How many catalogs simultaneously? | ||||||||||
| Displays outlines of surveys / MOCs | ||||||||||
| Displays outlines of instrument footprints / FOVs | ||||||||||
| Mousable features (possibly web-only) | ||||||||||
| Click to center view | ||||||||||
| Click to pop-up source/location info panel (e.g. with direct links to data) | ||||||||||
| Click source marker to pop-up plot with light curve | ||||||||||
| Click & drag to select sources (e.g. rectangle or circle) | ||||||||||
| Selecting sources displays a table of these sources | ||||||||||
| Currently displayed table of selected sources can be saved/exported | ||||||||||
| Rows in shown table are clickable (e.g. to pull more info from catalog) | ||||||||||
| Other features | ||||||||||
| Choose coordinate system (RA+Dec, glat+glon, ...) | ||||||||||
| Show coordinate grid | ||||||||||
| Show reticle | ||||||||||
| Show Healpix grid | ||||||||||
| Fullscreen mode (web) | ||||||||||
| Go-to-position box | ||||||||||
| Name resolution in go-to box | ||||||||||
| Image blinking (e.g. between to layers/images), with key strokes | ||||||||||
| Behavior around poles (pans / doesn't pan past poles) | ||||||||||
| Add others... | ||||||||||