About this Book
People come to data visualization, and D3 particularly, from three different areas. The first is traditional JavaScript development, where they assume D3 is a charting library or, less commonly, a mapping library. The second is more traditional software development, such as Java, where D3 is part of the transition into frontend or node development. The last area is a trajectory that involves statistical analysis using R, Python, or desktop apps.
For all these folks, D3 represents a transition into two major new areas: web development and data visualization. I touch on aspects of both that may give readers more grounding in what I expect to be new and strange fields. Someone who’s intimately familiar with JavaScript may find that many of these subjects are already well understood, and others who know data visualization may well feel the same way about several of the general principles, such as graphical primitives.
Although I do provide an introduction to D3, the focus of this book is on a more exhaustive explanation of key principles of the library. Whether you’re getting started with D3 or looking to develop more advanced skills, this book provides you with the tools you need to create whatever data visualization you can think of.