Hey Nic, Thanks for bringing this up. I was the author for #819, so I'd like to get some dicussion going on this, too. Sorry for the delay, I was in the midst of writing a thesis, which I am now free of.
On Sun, Aug 12, 2012 at 11:51:24PM -0500, Nic Eggert wrote: > Hi all, > > I'd like to bring up a question spurred by PRs #847(mine) and #819 > (recently accepted). These PRs both deal with stacked plots. #819 adds the > stackplot function to axes.py as a new function, which plots different 2-d > datasets stacked atop each other. #847 slightly modifies the functioning of > `hist` in axes.py by adding a new kwarg which allows datasets to be > stacked. Currently this is only possible using the `barstacked` histtype. > #847 makes it also work with the `step` and `stepfilled` histtypes. > > One of the issues that has been raised in the comments of #847 is whether > we want to take this opportunity to come up with a unified way to handle > "stacked-ness". Michael Droettboom suggested I raise this issue on this > list. So far, there are 3 different approaches: > > 1. The state before #819. AFAIK the only way to do any sort of stacking was > to call `hist` with `histtype="barstacked"`. This treats stacked histograms > as a different type of histogram than non-stacked histograms. One of my > motivations for writing #847 was to get stacked step and stepfilled > histograms, which would require adding several new histtypes (stepstacked > and stepfilledstacked). It seems to me that histtype mostly controls the > style of the histogram plotted, and shouldn't have anything to do with > "stacked-ness", so I think this is kind of clunky. > > 2. The approach I take in #847. Add a new kwarg which controls whether or > not multiple datasets are stacked. I think this is the cleanest > implementation, although that's probably obvious because it's how I wrote > my PR. To keep everything consistent in this approach, we should remove the > stackplot function added in #819, and move that functionality to the `plot` > function, adding a `stacked` kwarg there. > > 3. The approach of #819. With this approach, we would add a separate > function to handle stacked versions of different plots. I'd re-write #847 > as a new function called `stackhist`. This approach, IMO, doesn't scale > well if we want to add "stacked-ness" to more plot types in the future. I'm in favour of numero dos, even though for #819 I took approach number 3. I didn't really think about the bigger picture here with regards to stackedness of other plot types. But since seeing your stacked histogram changeset, this seems like a more sensible route. I say this with zero authority, though. It'd be nice to have a few people chime in with their two cents. > Please take a look at this and send comments about these proposals or any > others you might have. I hope the community can come to a consensus which > unifies the handling of stacked-ness. > > Whatever we end up choosing, I think adding a stacked step histogram will > make it much easier to promote the use of mpl in high energy physics, where > we use this style of plot frequently. > > Thanks, > > Nic Eggert > Graduate Fellow > Cornell University -- Damon McDougall http://www.damon-is-a-geek.com B2.39 Mathematics Institute University of Warwick Coventry West Midlands CV4 7AL United Kingdom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Matplotlib-devel mailing list Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel
