Competitive
Analysis

Why Choose Olectra Chart
over Bits Per Second Graphics Server V4.5

Better Looking Graphs - Graphics Server gives developers and users little control over the properties of the graph. For example, Graphics Server gives users and developers little control over color. GS only handles 16 different colors and these can only be applied to chart titles and the chart background and side walls. With Olectra Chart you can specify colors by name, by RGB value and by using a color chooser. Colors can be specified for the chart titles, legend, chart background, chart labels, gridlines and markers. As another example Olectra Chart allows users and developers to control symbol styles and colors on plot charts, bar fill styles and colors on bar charts, etc. Graphics Server has no such capabilities and overall very limited capabilities to change graph properties.

Better Performance - Olectra Chart provides performance for real-time data that is at least 4 times faster and up to 13 times faster. For scrolling strip charts Olectra Chart is the obvious choice.

Examples and Samples - Olectra Chart provides a very comprehensive set of demo programs and sample code to help developers get started quickly and easily. Olectra Chart comes with 20 demo programs and over 40 sample code files. There is over 30 000 lines of sample code included with Olectra Chart. Graphics Server comes with 21 Visual Basic Demos only.

3D Surface Charts - Olectra Chart offers 3D surface plots with shading, contours and grid lines. Graphics Server does not offer these features . Graphics Server lets users "fill" the contours but they have little control over the colors and the result is often a graph that is quite ugly. Olectra ChartÆs contour shading conveys much more information and is much more visually pleasing.

Q & A

Answers to some Questions:

Are there any types of graphs that Graphics Server can do that Olectra Chart does not? The only major graph types that they support that we do not are Polar Plots and Radar Charts. Polar Plots will be supported in Olectra Chart 2.0

Graphics Server does Data Binding. What is that, does Olectra Chart do it and why do I care? Data binding allows developers to have a connection between their data and the chart display so that if the data changes, that change is reflected in the chart. With Olectra Chart (and most other charting controls) the chart is a static snapshot of one set of data. If the data changes and you want to plot new data, the chart must be updated. For many applications, this static representation is all that is needed and new data is added as new data points rather than changing existing data points. For other types of applications (where data is being modified with one application and displayed with another for example), data binding is useful. Olectra Chart will support data binding in version 2.