Difference between using "gr()" via Plots and installing GR.jl package

Question

I have installed the Plots.jl package and using "gr()" command.

Then, I have come across GR.jl on https://gr-framework.org/julia.html

I am confused what is the difference between the two.

Could someone please cast insight into this?

Thanks,

Answer 1

GR.jl is a plotting package in Julia, actually a Julia wrapper to the whole GR framework, a really fast and powerful plotting framework with front- and backend capabilities. It is entirely useful and usable on it's own.

Plots.jl is meta-plotting package in Julia, which aims to provide a convenient terse syntax for creating plots with a number of different plotting packages. Plots thus does not do any plotting itself - it takes your input commands and translates them to calls to other plotting packages, called "backends". This is currently implemented for 5 different packages: PyPlot, GR, Plotly, PGFPlots and InspectDR. GR is by far the most widely used backend though (and currently the default).

A goal of Plots is to allow package owners to define "recipes", which are descriptions of how to plot a custom type (such as a Shapefile, a Phylogeny, a Cluster object etc), but without depending on Plots. This makes it possible to plot types with recipes defined with Plots, but without interfering with any other plotting packages.

So, though GR is usable on it's own, many users find that the higher-level syntax for Plots is nicer in everyday use, and enjoy the extra usefulness of recipes.