I've been wanting to throw together some non-R code to make basic slopegraphs for quite some time. Python seems to be a bit more accessible to folks, so it seemed like the logical choice, especially given how spiffy the Cairo framework is.

If you're not familiar with slopegraphs, this effort was designed to produce something similar to the one found here:

http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0003nk

Just scroll down a bit to find the graph that looks similar with the life expectancy data (the "television" data in the "examples" directory).

I haven't included much outside of stock 2.7.x libraries, so all you should need is Cairo (http://cairographics.org/) to get the code up and running on any platform.

Releasing it all under the MIT license:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Slopegraph

Install / Use

README