[kuatroka]

3. Apache echarts are much more interactive out of the box. The API is indeed clunky, but they’ve got all the chart type and all interactions you might need. IMHO, Plot in comparison, is very limited in interactivity and even chart types ( there are no heat maps or donuts).

echarts have a huge example library with clear examples and though Plot has it too, the library is not thought out well. You might looks at an example in the Plot Library only to realize later that it’s a D3 example. On the good side, the API in Plot is much cleaner and easier to work with.

[mbostock]

There are lots of ways to do heatmaps with Observable Plot. See the raster, contour, and cell marks.

https://observablehq.com/plot/marks/raster https://observablehq.com/plot/marks/contour https://observablehq.com/plot/marks/cell

We generally recommend stacked bar charts over pie and donut charts, so we haven’t prioritized those. But you can already implement them using custom marks, and there’s even a hacky way of doing them using Plot’s map projection system.

https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/pie-to-donut-chart

I don’t understand your comment about the “D3 example.” If you’re looking for Plot examples, you can find them linked from the Plot documentation and the gallery:

https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/plot-gallery

Plot is designed to be extended with JavaScript (rather than a non-JavaScript DSL such as Vega-Lite), such as for custom marks and data transforms. So you might occasionally see other libraries being used together with Plot.

[kuatroka]

I'll check the raster, contour, and cell marks. Thanks.

"I don’t understand your comment about the “D3 example.”..." 1. When I visit the Plot Gallery https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/plot-gallery 2. Go down the page to "More from Observable creators" 3. Select an example I like, for example - https://observablehq.com/d/3ea4b4458fed9242?page=2&collectio...

It turns out it's D3, not Plot. I think you just have all possible viz in this section, but for me as a user coming from the Observable Plot page and clicking on "See more..." my expectation is to see only examples of what could be done with Plot, not both D3 and Plot. I need to explicitly click on each link an check if it's Plot based or not. It gets tiresome and the curiosity just wanes away. Thanks.

[RyanHamilton]

I can second a +1 vote for eCharts. I have used them for fast updating charts (10x second) and they work and look great. I've only had 2-3 small niggles with them in 2years of heavy usage.