[tlug] Mailing list message frequency graphs

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

I got bored last night and decided to whip up a quickie Perl script to
graph the frequency of posts to the main list. Here are the results:

http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/yearly-1994-2006.png

http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-1994.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-1995.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-1996.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-1997.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-1998.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-1999.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-2000.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-2001.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-2002.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-2003.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-2004.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-2005.png
http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/monthly-2006.png

Here is the Perl script that I used to generate these graphs:

http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML/ml-archive-graph.pl

And here is the command-line invocation:

perl ml-archive-graph.pl \
 --from 1994-01 \
 --base-uri http://tlug:archives@example.com/ML \
 --date-fmt %y%m/maillist.html \
 --yr-title 'TLUG Mailing List Activity - Yearly - %Yf' \
 --mon-title 'TLUG Mailing List Activity - Monthly - %Y' \
 --mon-out ML/monthly-%Y.png \
 --yr-out ML/yearly-%Yf-%Yt.png \
 --verbose

I plan to link the graphs from the actual list archive indexes, but I
need to consult Tim and Jim T. to make sure I can do so without
angering MHonArc. ;)

Any Perl hackers out there should feel free to reply to this message
with a patch that makes the GD::Graph-generated graphs prettier. :)

Also note that I consider this script a hack, not a properly
engineered, production-ready tool. :) I will do a little more work on
it so it can be run automatically as part of the MHonArc process, when
I have time. Patches welcome!

Cheers,
Josh