Drawing Grids with Perl and SVG

My friend Brian wrote and blogged on using Python and Pillow to make grids so he can art.

I thought “Cool”. And then I thought “But I don’t like Python!”, and decided to re-implement this in Perl.

I also decided to go SVG, because that fits my use case. I am much more likely to want to throw to a laser cutter, so something that more naturally pops into Inkscape is good for me.

I have also written Spirograph stuff that outputs in SVG. I might revisit later. This is much simpler, with no sine or cosine necessary.

Anyway…

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict ;
use warnings ;
use utf8 ;
use feature qw{ postderef say signatures state } ;
no warnings qw{ experimental::postderef experimental::signatures } ;

use Carp ;
use Getopt::Long ;
use Pod::Usage ; # when I fix my man/help screens
use SVG ;

my $config = config() ;

...

sub config () {
    my $config = {
        dot => 0,
        height => 600,
        width => 600,
        step => 10,
        file => 'graph.svg',
        } ;
    GetOptions(
        'man' => \$config->{ man },
        'height=i' => \$config->{ height },
        'width=i' => \$config->{ width },
        'step=i' => \$config->{ step },
        'dot' => \$config->{ dot },
        'file=s' => \$config->{ file },
        ) ;

    exit if $config->{ height } < 100 ;
    exit if $config->{ width } < 100 ;
    exit if $config->{ step } < 1 ;
    exit if $config->{ man } ;
    return $config ;
    }

Brian uses sys.argv, but I have long since decided that argument order is going to inevitably end in confusion, going with options and Getopt::Long. Perl’s motto is There’s More Than One Way To Do It, and the Getopt section of CPAN is full of ways to do it, but some are better than others, and unless I’m just slurping and joining ARGV, I have standardized on Getopt::Long.

The field=i in GetOptions() also ensures that those are integer fields.

I will also point out that Pod::Usage is in there, but not used. I do use it a lot, and this would be where and how it tells us that --height 20 and --step -10 are just not on. But, as is, it just exits.

I do this, in part, because I know that --help and --height will compete for -h. I will have to consider the flags sometime.

my $svg = SVG->new(
    height => $config->{ height },
    width => $config->{ width },
    ) ;

...

my $output = $svg->xmlify ;
if ( open my $fh, '>', $config->{ file } ) {
    print $fh $output ;
    close $fh ;
    say 'Done' ;
    }
else {
    say 'fail' ;
    }

If we just stop here, we just create an empty SVG file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-SVG-20010904/DTD/svg10.dtd">
<svg height="600" width="600" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
    <!-- 
    Generated using the Perl SVG Module V2.64
    by Ronan Oger
    Info: http://www.roitsystems.com/
 -->
</svg>

I have long said “I hate XML; I love RSS”, and this follows. I don’t have to dive into the innards of SVG files often, if at all, so as long as it stays consistent, I am happy with it.

Looking back at GetOptions, you’ll notice a boolean flag for --dots. From Field Notes, I have become a fan of graph paper that uses dots instead of lines to create the graph. So, here, I have added that option. It also allows me to show drawing both circles and lines in SVG.

if ( $config->{ dot } ) {
    my $height = $config->{ height } ;
    my $width = $config->{ width } ;
    my $step = $config->{ step } ;

    for ( my $h = 0 ; $h <= $height ; $h = $h + $step ) {
        for ( my $v = 0 ; $v <= $width ; $v = $v + $step ) {
            $svg->circle(
                cx => $v,
                cy => $h,
                r => 0.5,
                style => {
                    stroke => 'black',
                    'stroke-width' => 0.2,
                    fill => 'black',
                    }
                    ) ;
            }
        }

    say 'DOT' ;
    }
else {
    say 'LINE' ;
    my $height = $config->{ height } ;
    my $width = $config->{ width } ;
    my $step = $config->{ step } ;

    # horizontal
    for ( my $h = 0 ; $h <= $height ; $h = $h + $step ) {
        $svg->line(
            x1 => 0,
            y1 => $h,
            x2 => $width,
            y2 => $h,
            style => {
                stroke => 'black',
                'stroke-width' => 0.2,
                fill => 'none',
                }
                ) ;
        }

    # vertical
    for ( my $v = 0 ; $v <= $width ; $v = $v + $step ) {
        $svg->line(
            x1 => $v,
            y1 => $0,
            x2 => $v,
            y2 => $height,
            style => {
                stroke => 'black',
                'stroke-width' => 0.2,
                fill => 'none',
                }
                ) ;
        }
    }

I copied variables out of $config to avoid some verbosity inside the loops. I’m not 100% happy with this. I could definitely see this as a violation of DRY.

The syntax for $svg->line() and $svg->circle() are, I think, far more important than for loops. I leave adding stroke and fill values as an exercise to the reader.

The full code is available as a GitHub Gist.

Alternative versions, such as hexagonal graphs or dynamically-created graphs using HTML5, are left as an exercise for the reader.

If you have any questions or comments, I would be glad to hear it. Ask me on Twitter or make an issue on my blog repo.

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Drawing Grids with Perl and SVG

Dave Jacoby

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