I also recently found a blog post about embedding python in LaTeX files [UPDATE: post appears to have gone offline. Here is a backup copy of python.sty, thanks to Steve Checkley]. Using this with CairoPlot, it is easy to put the chart-producing code directly in my .tex files and compile. This reduces the extra step of making separate python scripts to produce these charts. Here is some sample code from a paper I’m currently writing:

I do have some gripes about python.sty, though. I have to remember to use the latex command with the “–shell-escape” option. Also, it produces files for the python code, stderr and stdout output, and I don’t particularly care for the directory getting cluttered up with temporary files. Because of these annoyances, I might forgo the python.sty method and just keep a python script that generates all the charts.

Orange, red, and yellow maple leaves fallen to the stone walkway at a temple in Fukuoka

Homepage of Michael Wayne Goodman, computational linguist at the University of Washington.