The Big Refactor That Made AlgebraOfGraphics Scale Better

Explore the major architectural improvements to AlgebraOfGraphics (AoG), a declarative plotting library built on the Makie.jl ecosystem, through this 10-minute conference talk from JuliaCon Global 2025. Learn about the comprehensive refactor undertaken by PumasAI that transformed AoG's internal structure to deliver significant enhancements in performance, usability, and feature capabilities. Discover the breakthrough multi-scale support that enables multiple independent scales for the same aesthetic, allowing separate legends for different plot types and greater flexibility with layered visualizations. Understand how the refactor resolved long-standing issues with horizontal bar plots, violin plots, and error bars by requiring plot types to declare their aesthetics for accurate axis annotations and legends. Examine the enhanced legend system that supports adding non-scale plots with simple labels, fine-tuning legend elements, overriding attributes, and automatic alpha forwarding for visual consistency, plus improved continuous marker size scales with areas chosen for linear human perception. Investigate the overhauled faceting and pagination system that maintains scale consistency across paginated facet plots while preventing legend collisions and enabling compatibility with multiple X and Y scales per facet. Master the simplified data handling approach that allows direct mapping of column vectors without explicit data calls, introduces the direct function for external column mapping, and supports scalar values as shorthand for repeated categorical labels. Gain insights into the refined sorting behavior for categorical and string-based data, including natural sorting of string categories and improved handling of numerical vectors with missing values, making AoG more flexible and user-friendly for both exploratory plots and publication-quality visualizations.