Abstract:
Charles Joseph Minard's depiction of Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaignmight be described as the best statistical graphic ever drawn ... byhand. Minard did not have the benefit of modern computer technologyto help with his drawing; he did not have the option of importing aGoogle map tile; and he probably did not even consider the possibilityof interactive tooltips. However, there are aspects of what Minardproduced by hand that are very challenging for modern graphicalsoftware, particularly the thick bands that represent the size ofNapolean's army over time. This talk will describe the 'vwline'package for R and explore some of the interesting challenges thatarise when attempting to render variable-width lines with software.