Vega-lite: [Feature Request] Swarm Plot

[hydrosquall]

Hi team!

As a data analyst, I would like to be able to create swarm plots using vega-lite, as they are a nice way to display all the points in a distribution without losing granularity like one would with a histogram. I would eventually want to layer them next to a box plot, as I was inspired by the visualization shared in this tweet.

I noticed that regular vega has a similar looking plot. https://vega.github.io/vega/examples/beeswarm-plot/

Thanks for your consideration!

* Checklist *

• [x] Check for duplicate issues (searched for swarm in issues )
• [x] Describe how to reproduce the bug / the goal of the new feature request

[kanitw]

We plan to support jittering in the future #396, which would allow you to reproduce the screenshot in the tweet you included. (The non-box-plot half is basically a dot plot with jittering.)

Note that this is different from the beeswarm-plot in Vega which uses force directed layout though.
Currently we don't have plan to support force directed layout in Vega-Lite in the near future. (There are many other more important futures to hit.

Since this will be a part of #396, I'll close this issue for now.

[joelostblom]

@kanitw Is there any chance of having this issue reopened even if it is not in the part of the immediate future (I can also open a new issue if that's easier)? I think bee/swarm/hive plots are very useful since they indicate both distribution shape and the position of individual data points in a single plot (instead of e.g. combining a violinplot with a jittered dot plot).