In the final chapter of this book, we will address a topic that has been alluded to several times—clustering and parallel programming for matplotlib. Our motivation to discuss this is nearly identical to that which drove our investigation into working with large datasets. Although matplotlib lib itself isn't a library that makes direct use of large datasets or provides an API that can be used with clusters, advanced users of the library will very likely encounter situations where they may want to utilize matplotlib.

Not to put too fine a point on this, we live in a new world of computing. This was presented exceptionally well in the oft-quoted article, The Free Lunch Is Over, by Herb Sutter. With the drastic limitations faced by the semiconductor industry, yearly gains in computing power are no longer a result of faster chips. Instead, we get this benefit through the addition of cores in a single machine. Unfortunately, common practices in programming...