Add ecosystem overview (#182)

Author: michalsustr

ECOSYSTEM.md

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# Plotting libraries in Rust
+
+I searched over published crates on crates.io in November 2025 and found some interesting libraries.
+I briefly describe their functionality/main limitations here. 
+
+Note that as far as I've looked, `egui_plot` is the only plotting library that supports plot interactions straight through Rust, without going through Javascript or other binding layers.
+Also, `egui_plot` produces a list of painting commands that are sent to a backend renderer, which can be GPU accelerated and easily integrated into other GUIs.
+Therefore, `egui_plot` can efficiently render large number of (interactive) plot items.
+See [`egui`](https://github.com/emilk/egui) for more info about GPU integration.
+
+## Rust rendering libraries
+
+| Name                                                        | Description                                                                     |
+|-------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
+| [`plotters`](https://crates.io/crates/plotters)             | Pure Rust, interesting! But interactivity seems to be done via Javascript only. |
+| [`graplot`](https://crates.io/crates/graplot)               | Pure Rust, but inactive                                                         |
+| [`quill`](https://crates.io/crates/quill)                   | Pure Rust, SVG, basic plots                                                     |
+| [`plotlib`](https://crates.io/crates/plotlib)               | Pure Rust, SVG/text, basic features, looks abandoned                            |
+| [`rustplotlib`](https://crates.io/crates/rustplotlib)       | Pure Rust, inactive                                                             |
+| [`criterion-plot`](https://crates.io/crates/criterion-plot) | not maintained                                                                  |
+| [`runmat-plot`](https://crates.io/crates/runmat-plot)       | Uses matplotlib-like DSL                                                        |
+| [`cgrustplot`](https://crates.io/crates/cgrustplot)         | terminal plotting                                                               |
+| [`termplot`](https://crates.io/crates/termplot)             | terminal plotting                                                               |
+| [`lowcharts`](https://crates.io/crates/lowcharts)           | terminal plotting                                                               |
+
+## Wrappers around other plotting libraries
+
+Following crates wrap other plotting libraries:
+
+| Name                                                      | Description                                                                                                                                                                   |
+|-----------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
+| [`dear-imgui-rs`](https://crates.io/crates/dear-imgui-rs) | C/C++ bindings to https://github.com/ocornut/imgui. IMGUI is probably the most interesting library out there, as it is also immediate-mode based like `egui` and `egui_plot`. |
+| [`gnuplot`](https://crates.io/crates/gnuplot)             | C/C++ bindings to http://www.gnuplot.info/                                                                                                                                    |
+| [`plotly`](https://crates.io/crates/plotly)               | JS wrapper                                                                                                                                                                    |
+| [`charming`](https://crates.io/crates/charming)           | JS wrapper                                                                                                                                                                    |
+| [`charts-rs`](https://crates.io/crates/charts-rs)         | JS wrapper                                                                                                                                                                    |
+| [`plotpy`](https://crates.io/crates/plotpy)               | Python wrapper                                                                                                                                                                |
+| [`poloto`](https://crates.io/crates/poloto)               | SVG, no interaction                                                                                                                                                           |

README.md

@@ -8,17 +8,21 @@
 ![Apache](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache-blue.svg)
 [![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/900275882684477440?label=egui%20discord)](https://discord.gg/JFcEma9bJq)
 
-Immediate mode plotting for [`egui`](https://github.com/emilk/egui).
+Immediate mode 2D plotting library for [`egui`](https://crates.io/crates/https://github.com/emilk/egui).
 
-![egui_plot_white](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b29acf5e-ccbf-4cb7-b03b-7e258fa5db16)
+[![egui_plot_white](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b29acf5e-ccbf-4cb7-b03b-7e258fa5db16)](https://emilk.github.io/egui_plot/)
 
-[Try the web demo](https://emilk.github.io/egui_plot/)
+[Try the web demo gallery](https://emilk.github.io/egui_plot/).
 
 ## Testing
 
 - Locally: `cargo run -p demo`
 - Web: `(cd demo && trunk serve)`
 
+## Plotting libraries in Rust
+
+To view a list of plotting libraries in Rust, see [notes on Rust plotting ecosystem](ECOSYSTEM.md).
+
 ## History
 
 This crate was originally hosted at <https://github.com/emilk/egui> but was extracted into its own repository on 2024-07-15.