Re: [matplotlib-devel] Plot or Not: voting to create better matplotlibrc

Sat, 20 Jul 2013 20:09:39 -0700

Regarding whole sets of rcParams, you may want to look at this:
https://github.com/tonysyu/mpltools

Kevin

On 07/20/2013 09:48 PM, Chris Beaumont wrote:
'image.cmap' -- nice! Shows how much I know :)

I don't fully agree with Eric that changing the defaults should be treated as an API break -- yes, it may irritate a minority of users, but their code will still run. I'd flip around your argument for the role of rcParams and customization: the majority user is probably someone who doesn't know much about rcParams, or all the ways plots can be customized. *That* is the use case to optimize, not the "legacy" users invested in the current style.

However, default tweaking need not be painful. As has been mentioned, a first step would be an easier way to change a whole set of rcParams: something like mpl.set_style('style-name'). As long as one style is 'classic', users can keep the current style for as long as they want. It's a one line fix, and could even be rcParams-settable.

With such a framework, it would be possible for people to contribute new styles that ship with MPL, and users could change styles without having to find (and potentially merge) rcParams files from the web. Finally, people could nominate that mature styles be made default (you could even assign version numbers to track the default style as it evolves towards visual awesomeness)

chris
 


On Sat, Jul 20, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Eric Firing <[email protected]> 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".

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.

Eric

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