Hi all,
I am using Matplotlib 1.0.1 and am seeing weird behaviour with mplot3d and 
ticker formatters, and I think I need to submit a patch to axes3d, but am not 
sure how much it will break, because format_zdata() and format_coord() look to 
be defined inconsistently.

When trying to rotate a plot, which was created including the following 
commands,
  ...
  ax.plot(x[0,alow:atop],x[1,alow:atop],x[2,alow:atop],c=rgb.tolist())
  ax.w_xaxis.set_major_locator(tic.LinearLocator(3))
  ax.w_xaxis.set_major_formatter(tic.FormatStrFormatter(''))
  ax.w_yaxis.set_major_locator(tic.LinearLocator(3))
  ax.w_yaxis.set_major_formatter(tic.FormatStrFormatter(''))
  ax.w_zaxis.set_major_locator(tic.LinearLocator(3))
  ax.w_zaxis.set_major_formatter(tic.FormatStrFormatter(''))
  plt.draw()
  ...

I received the following backtrace and error message:

/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backend_bases.pyc in 
mouse_move(self, event)
   2393         if event.inaxes and event.inaxes.get_navigate():
   2394 
-> 2395             try: s = event.inaxes.format_coord(event.xdata, 
event.ydata)
   2396             except ValueError: pass
   2397             except OverflowError: pass

/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.pyc in 
format_coord(self, xd, yd)
    474 
    475         xs = self.format_xdata(x)
--> 476         ys = self.format_ydata(y)
    477         zs = self.format_ydata(z)
    478         return 'x=%s, y=%s, z=%s' % (xs, ys, zs)

/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.pyc in 
format_ydata(self, y)
    424         except TypeError:
    425             fmt = self.w_yaxis.get_major_formatter()
--> 426             return sensible_format_data(fmt, y)
    427 
    428     def format_zdata(self, z):

/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/axes3d.pyc in 
sensible_format_data(self, value)
     26     if abs(value) > 1e4 or abs(value)<1e-3:
     27         s = '%1.4e' % value
---> 28         return self._formatSciNotation(s)
     29     else:
     30         return '%4.3f' % value

AttributeError: FormatStrFormatter instance has no attribute 
'_formatSciNotation'

---
I am using FormatStrFormatter('') to try to obtain an empty tick.

[1] It looks like sensible_format_data() assumes that self is class 
ScalarFormatter(Formatter), since this is the only ticker Formatter that has 
attribute _formatSciNotation(s). As far as I can tell, this means that 
sensible_format_data(fmt,y) should *only* be called if fmt has class 
ScalarFormatter(Formatter).


[2] In axes3d.py, I see:

    def format_zdata(self, z):
        """
        Return z string formatted.  This function will use the attribute
        self.fmt_zdata if it is callable, else will fall back on the yaxis
        major formatter
        """
        try:
            return self.fmt_zdata(z)
        except (AttributeError, TypeError):
            fmt = self.w_zaxis.get_major_formatter()
            return sensible_format_data(fmt, z)

To me, it looks like the call to sensible_format_data(fmt, z) is wrong. The 
same error occurs in format_xdata() and format_ydata(). So I would like to 
submit a patch for format_xdata(), format_ydata(), format_zdata(), e.g.:

    def format_zdata(self, z):
        """
        Return z string formatted.  This function will use the attribute
        self.fmt_zdata if it is callable, else will fall back on the zaxis
        major formatter
        """
        try:
            return self.fmt_zdata(z)
        except (AttributeError, TypeError):
            fmt = self.w_zaxis.get_major_formatter()
            try:
                return sensible_format_data(fmt, z)
            except (AttributeError, TypeError):
                return format_data(fmt, z)


[3] But I am also worried about the comment "else will fall back on the yaxis 
major formatter". Shouldn't this say "the zaxis major formatter", since that 
is what the code does? Or should the code use the yaxis major formatter, since 
that is what the documentation says? The documentation 
http://matplotlib.github.com/mpl_toolkits/mplot3d/api.html agrees with the 
comment and not with the code.


[4] In def format_coord(self, xd, yd), I see

        xs = self.format_xdata(x)
        ys = self.format_ydata(y)
        zs = self.format_ydata(z)

Why doesn't the last line say 
        zs = self.format_zdata(z)
?

Best, Paul

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