This is more of a choice of how the creator wanted to display the usefulness of C2. That can just as easily be done with C2. [:div {:class "hist-bar-default"}]

This is more of a choice of how the creator wanted to display the usefulness of C2. That can just as easily be done with C2. [:div {:class "hist-bar-default"}] would likely be the way to do it. Also d3.js examples are riddled with bars.attr("style", "height: " + 30px) just because sometimes it's easier to think about it while developing there. It's not maintainable and very problematic in large designs but I would recommend not judging a library based off of design choices like that with examples of d3 or c2. I'm glad you're passionate about visualization though, you should definitely start using these libraries, and after a while (d3.js has been said to "melt your brain initially) you'll realize the benefits of working at a lower level with the data.