On 07/20/2013 09:07 PM, Eric Firing wrote: > On 2013/07/20 2:38 PM, David P. Sanders wrote: >> And this is my problem with 'rc': it brings to mind an arcane config >> file hidden away somewhere that has a terrible syntax and must not be >> touched. >> >> As Chris and Adrian have emphasized, the point is that we *should* be >> tweaking away at the parameters all the time. >> I propose to rename as mpl_params=rcParams >> > Yes, mpl_params is more descriptive and easy to remember. rcParams is > ugly, obscure, and archaic. It will have to remain available for a long > time, but I don't object to changing standard usage to a nicer name. > There might even be a better name than "mpl_params"--"settings" comes to > mind, or maybe "style".
I agree those are better. This is *such* a core method, though, that the old name can probably never go away -- there are tons of references to it in the documentation that would need to be updated, not to mention all of the non-documentation information (mailing list, stackoverflow) that Google finds. I worry that adding an alias will actually contribute to confusion, not eliminate it. I'd prefer to make it more obvious what it is and does in the documentation rather than change its name. > > As for parameter tweaking: the defaults shipped with mpl should be > changed only rarely, but we should make it as easy as possible for users > to customize plots, including coming up with good combinations of style > parameters. In some cases it makes sense to do this via a matplotlibrc > file, in other cases it is better to do the parameter setting explicitly > at the top of a script. > > Regarding defaults, note that I said "rarely", not "never". > > The whole rc system could use a good review--maybe resulting in lots of > changes, maybe not--so I welcome the attention you are directing to it. > My biggest pet peeve is the way that some parameters take effect at "construction time" and thus their changes have no effect on existing plots. Some take effect at draw time, and are thus more dynamic. We should strive for the latter whenever possible. Some things are just required to be the former, so these should be documented clearly as exceptions. As for a low-hanging fruit project, the formatting of matplotlibrc.template is a mess. It would be great if someone could go through it and make the line lengths and tabbing consistent etc. Mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds. Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Matplotlib-devel mailing list Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel
