Graphing With Google Charts API

FROM : Jamie Phelps
DATE : Sat May 31 19:29:59 2008

I am writing an application that could seriously benefit from a good 
graphing API. Of course, the simplest solution to this would be if 
Apple opened up GraphKit for Cocoa developers. Sadly, that seems not 
to be in the near future, so I'm looking at alternatives.

While there are some graphing frameworks out there, most of them seem 
incomplete and/or without a great deal of ongoing development. So, my 
thought was that Google's relatively new Charts API would be a great 
way to plug this hole for the time being. Simple URL calls return PNG 
images that could then be cached.

Other than the obvious need for an internet connection, can anyone see 
any reason this can't work as a viable solution to the graphing 
problem in Cocoa?

For reference, here is Google's Charts API page: http://code.google.com/apis/chart/

Jamie