Chronoscope: 2 + 2 = 5 with GWT and Android

November 28, 2007


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Timepedia has released Chronoscope, an open source charting and visualization library, built using GWT.

It features:
  • Canvas abstraction for drawing vector graphs
  • Graph Style Sheets abstraction for configuring the look-and-feel of charts
  • Scalable multiresolution rendering supporting up to tens of thousands of points
  • Zoom and pan at interactive frame rates, from centuries to milliseconds
  • Auto-ranging, auto-layout of chart axes and ticks.
  • Auto-legend, and mini-chart Overview
  • Add pushpin markers, domain and range markers, and overlays like Google Maps
  • Bookmarkable chart state, works with Back button
  • JS interopability. GWT API can be used by pure Javascript programmers
  • Microformat support. Charts can be configured without programming.
  • Server-side Font assistance. Render rotated text.
  • Portable, Chronoscope is not tied to GWT, can be used to render from servlets, applets, or other environments.

What is particularly interesting is how the Chronoscope team was able to take their existing Java source code, add 8 hours of Android exploration, and ended up with the same charting and visualization library that works on Android using their graphics support.

This is one area that GWT truly shines. The fact that you write your code in the Java programming language means that you can reuse it in other places where Java runs. Being able to write one application and quickly have it run on Android and the iPhone is pretty compelling.

Here you can see it running: