matplotlib-devel

[matplotlib-devel] soliciting feedback on proposed user survey

[Paul I. <piv...@gm...>]

Hey everyone,

with 1.1.1 just around the corner, I thought it'd be nice to put
together an MPL user survey, similar to what Thomas Kluyver
organized for IPython last year [1].

Here's what I've got so far [2], and here's the response one gets
upon filling out the form:

-----
Thanks for your feedback.

As promised, here are the details of how to do various things:

the official documentation is at: 
    http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/

to run the test suite:
    python -c "import matplotlib; matplotlib.test()"

file bug reports and submit pull requests here: 
    https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib

to post to the matplotlib-users list, subscribe here:
    https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
-----

with an additional link at the bottom to look at the summary of previous
respondents, which looks like [3].

How does this look to everyone? Any changes before I distribute
this more widely? (Preferably not just via list, but also add a
link to it on the main page, which is what IPython folks also did
for a while).

1. http://ipython.org/usersurvey2011.html
2. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHpQS25pcTZIRWdqX0pNckNSU01sMHc6MQ
3. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewanalytics?formkey=dHpQS25pcTZIRWdqX0pNckNSU01sMHc6MQ

best,
-- 
Paul Ivanov
314 address only used for lists,  off-list direct email at:
http://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7 

Re: [matplotlib-devel] soliciting feedback on proposed user survey

[Paul I. <piv...@gm...>]

Paul Ivanov, on 2012-03-28 17:22,  wrote:
> Hey everyone,
> 
> with 1.1.1 just around the corner, I thought it'd be nice to put
> together an MPL user survey, similar to what Thomas Kluyver
> organized for IPython last year [1].
> 
> Here's what I've got so far [2], and here's the response one gets
> upon filling out the form:
> 
> -----
> Thanks for your feedback.
> 
> As promised, here are the details of how to do various things:
> 
> the official documentation is at: 
>     http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/
> 
> to run the test suite:
>     python -c "import matplotlib; matplotlib.test()"
> 
> file bug reports and submit pull requests here: 
>     https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib
> 
> to post to the matplotlib-users list, subscribe here:
>     https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
> -----
> 
> with an additional link at the bottom to look at the summary of previous
> respondents, which looks like [3].
> 
> How does this look to everyone? Any changes before I distribute
> this more widely? (Preferably not just via list, but also add a
> link to it on the main page, which is what IPython folks also did
> for a while).
> 
> 1. http://ipython.org/usersurvey2011.html
> 2. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHpQS25pcTZIRWdqX0pNckNSU01sMHc6MQ
> 3. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewanalytics?formkey=dHpQS25pcTZIRWdqX0pNckNSU01sMHc6MQ

Me again, just decided to inline the survey text, so that
suggestions can be more readily made here, without having to
following links, etc.


matplotlib user survey 2012

Stand up and be counted, matplotlib developers want to hear from you! All
questions are optional, we look forward to your feedback.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

What country are you from? [                    ]

How long have you been using matplotlib?

  • (*) about a month
  • ( ) < 6 months
  • ( ) about a year
  • ( ) 2 to 4 years
  • ( ) more than 4 years


What operating system do you run matplotlib on? (check all that apply)

  • [ ] *BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, etc)
  • [ ] GNU/Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, OpenSUSE, Arch, Gentoo, etc)
  • [ ] Mac OS X
  • [ ] Windows
  • [ ] Other: [                    ]


What version of python do you use matplotlib on? (check all that apply)

  • [ ] 2.4
  • [ ] 2.5
  • [ ] 2.6
  • [ ] 2.7
  • [ ] 3.0
  • [ ] 3.1
  • [ ] 3.2


You use matplotlib for: (check all that apply)

  • [ ] Academic development (research, publication graphics, etc.)
  • [ ] Commercial development
  • [ ] Personal hobby / recreationally


You *primarily* use matplotlib for: (check all that apply)

  • ( ) Academic development (research, publication graphics, etc.)
  • ( ) Commercial development
  • ( ) Personal hobby / recreationally


How do you use matplotlib? 
[                                                                           ]
[                                                                           ]
[                                                                           ]

How frequently do you *RUN* code which uses matplotlib?

  • ( ) daily
  • ( ) a few times per week
  • ( ) a few times per month
  • ( ) less frequently


How frequently do you *WRITE* code which uses matplotlib?

  • ( ) daily
  • ( ) a few times per week
  • ( ) a few times per month
  • ( ) less frequently


For the matplotlib project, do you know how to ... (check all that apply,
you'll get all the answers after you hit the submit button)

  • [ ] locate and navigate the official documentation
  • [ ] run the test suite
  • [ ] file bug reports on GitHub
  • [ ] post to the matplotlib-users list
  • [ ] submit patches / pull requests


In the past year, have you... (check all that apply)

  • [ ] accessed the official documentation
  • [ ] run the test suite
  • [ ] filed a bug report on GitHub
  • [ ] posted to the matplotlib-users list
  • [ ] submitted a patch / pull request


How do you get matplotlib on your machine? (check all that apply)

  • [ ] compile and install directly from source (zip / tarball / git checkout)
  • [ ] use official packages provided by matplotlib team
  • [ ] use packages provided by my operating system (.deb, .rpm, ports, etc)
  • [ ] Enthought Python Distribution (EPD) http://enthought.com/products/epd.php
  • [ ] Python(X,Y) http://code.google.com/p/pythonxy/
  • [ ] Sage http://sagemath.org/
  • [ ] Other: [                    ]


What other plotting libraries do you use and why? 
[                                                                           ]
[                                                                           ]
[                                                                           ]

How would you like matplotlib to improve in the future? 
[                                                                           ]
[                                                                           ]
[                                                                           ]

best,
-- 
Paul Ivanov
http://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7

Re: [matplotlib-devel] soliciting feedback on proposed user survey

[Michael D. <md...@st...>]

This is a great idea.  A question that might be worth adding is what 
backends are being used.  I'd be interested to find out which ones are 
most heavily used.

A related question (though I don't know how easy it would be to be 
complete on) would be what plot types are used.

Thanks for doing this!

Mike

On 03/28/2012 08:27 PM, Paul Ivanov wrote:
> Paul Ivanov, on 2012-03-28 17:22,  wrote:
>> Hey everyone,
>>
>> with 1.1.1 just around the corner, I thought it'd be nice to put
>> together an MPL user survey, similar to what Thomas Kluyver
>> organized for IPython last year [1].
>>
>> Here's what I've got so far [2], and here's the response one gets
>> upon filling out the form:
>>
>> -----
>> Thanks for your feedback.
>>
>> As promised, here are the details of how to do various things:
>>
>> the official documentation is at:
>>      http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/
>>
>> to run the test suite:
>>      python -c "import matplotlib; matplotlib.test()"
>>
>> file bug reports and submit pull requests here:
>>      https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib
>>
>> to post to the matplotlib-users list, subscribe here:
>>      https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>> -----
>>
>> with an additional link at the bottom to look at the summary of previous
>> respondents, which looks like [3].
>>
>> How does this look to everyone? Any changes before I distribute
>> this more widely? (Preferably not just via list, but also add a
>> link to it on the main page, which is what IPython folks also did
>> for a while).
>>
>> 1. http://ipython.org/usersurvey2011.html
>> 2. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHpQS25pcTZIRWdqX0pNckNSU01sMHc6MQ
>> 3. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewanalytics?formkey=dHpQS25pcTZIRWdqX0pNckNSU01sMHc6MQ
> Me again, just decided to inline the survey text, so that
> suggestions can be more readily made here, without having to
> following links, etc.
>
>
> matplotlib user survey 2012
>
> Stand up and be counted, matplotlib developers want to hear from you! All
> questions are optional, we look forward to your feedback.
> ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
>
> What country are you from? [                    ]
>
> How long have you been using matplotlib?
>
>    • (*) about a month
>    • ( )<  6 months
>    • ( ) about a year
>    • ( ) 2 to 4 years
>    • ( ) more than 4 years
>
>
> What operating system do you run matplotlib on? (check all that apply)
>
>    • [ ] *BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, etc)
>    • [ ] GNU/Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, OpenSUSE, Arch, Gentoo, etc)
>    • [ ] Mac OS X
>    • [ ] Windows
>    • [ ] Other: [                    ]
>
>
> What version of python do you use matplotlib on? (check all that apply)
>
>    • [ ] 2.4
>    • [ ] 2.5
>    • [ ] 2.6
>    • [ ] 2.7
>    • [ ] 3.0
>    • [ ] 3.1
>    • [ ] 3.2
>
>
> You use matplotlib for: (check all that apply)
>
>    • [ ] Academic development (research, publication graphics, etc.)
>    • [ ] Commercial development
>    • [ ] Personal hobby / recreationally
>
>
> You *primarily* use matplotlib for: (check all that apply)
>
>    • ( ) Academic development (research, publication graphics, etc.)
>    • ( ) Commercial development
>    • ( ) Personal hobby / recreationally
>
>
> How do you use matplotlib?
> [                                                                           ]
> [                                                                           ]
> [                                                                           ]
>
> How frequently do you *RUN* code which uses matplotlib?
>
>    • ( ) daily
>    • ( ) a few times per week
>    • ( ) a few times per month
>    • ( ) less frequently
>
>
> How frequently do you *WRITE* code which uses matplotlib?
>
>    • ( ) daily
>    • ( ) a few times per week
>    • ( ) a few times per month
>    • ( ) less frequently
>
>
> For the matplotlib project, do you know how to ... (check all that apply,
> you'll get all the answers after you hit the submit button)
>
>    • [ ] locate and navigate the official documentation
>    • [ ] run the test suite
>    • [ ] file bug reports on GitHub
>    • [ ] post to the matplotlib-users list
>    • [ ] submit patches / pull requests
>
>
> In the past year, have you... (check all that apply)
>
>    • [ ] accessed the official documentation
>    • [ ] run the test suite
>    • [ ] filed a bug report on GitHub
>    • [ ] posted to the matplotlib-users list
>    • [ ] submitted a patch / pull request
>
>
> How do you get matplotlib on your machine? (check all that apply)
>
>    • [ ] compile and install directly from source (zip / tarball / git checkout)
>    • [ ] use official packages provided by matplotlib team
>    • [ ] use packages provided by my operating system (.deb, .rpm, ports, etc)
>    • [ ] Enthought Python Distribution (EPD) http://enthought.com/products/epd.php
>    • [ ] Python(X,Y) http://code.google.com/p/pythonxy/
>    • [ ] Sage http://sagemath.org/
>    • [ ] Other: [                    ]
>
>
> What other plotting libraries do you use and why?
> [                                                                           ]
> [                                                                           ]
> [                                                                           ]
>
> How would you like matplotlib to improve in the future?
> [                                                                           ]
> [                                                                           ]
> [                                                                           ]
>
> best,

Re: [matplotlib-devel] soliciting feedback on proposed user survey

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

On Thursday, March 29, 2012, Michael Droettboom wrote:

> This is a great idea.  A question that might be worth adding is what
> backends are being used.  I'd be interested to find out which ones are
> most heavily used.
>
> A related question (though I don't know how easy it would be to be
> complete on) would be what plot types are used.
>
> Thanks for doing this!
>
> Mike


For the backend question, add a "don't know (what's a backend?)" option.
 Maybe ask about which mpl_toolkits that get used, (axes_grid1, mplot3d,
Basemap, etc)?

Ben Root

P.S. - No, I am not really back, just have free wifi today at this hotel
and some down time. I have no clue when my new place will get Internet
turned on.

Re: [matplotlib-devel] soliciting feedback on proposed user survey

[Paul I. <piv...@gm...>]

Ok, added a question about backends. Hopefully I didn't miss one.

Which backends do you use? (check all that apply, note that there is a
"I don't know. What's a backend?" option)

    Agg
    Cairo
    FLTKAgg
    GDK
    GTK
    GTKAgg
    GTKCairo
    macosx
    PDF
    PS
    QTAgg
    QT4Agg
    SVG
    TkAgg
    WX
    WXAgg
    I don't know. What's a backend?

-- 
Paul Ivanov
314 address only used for lists,  off-list direct email at:
http://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7

[matplotlib-devel] Bug: errorbar caps require mew!=0

[Mike K. <mc...@gm...>]

If mew=0, then the caps on errorbars are not drawn regardless of the 
setting of the "capsize" option. I don't think this should be the 
behavior, it certainly caught me off guard, since I had mew=0 set in 
rcParams.

This is present as of 5b499f0180befea04fab7bfda17ba3ad7cf2380e
(Mar 22nd master)

M

Re: [matplotlib-devel] Bug: errorbar caps require mew!=0

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 7:49 AM, Mike Kaufman <mc...@gm...> wrote:

> If mew=0, then the caps on errorbars are not drawn regardless of the
> setting of the "capsize" option. I don't think this should be the
> behavior, it certainly caught me off guard, since I had mew=0 set in
> rcParams.
>
> This is present as of 5b499f0180befea04fab7bfda17ba3ad7cf2380e
> (Mar 22nd master)
>
> M
>
>
This is indeed confusing and I have been meaning to do something about this
for a while now (yet another item in my todo list...).  Keep in mind that
there is actually no discrepancy.  The marker is turned onto its side.  So
the marker edge width parameter actually effects the cap's thickness.  So,
having a finite capsize, but a zero thickness should result in no cap being
drawn.

But it is totally unintuitive that mew should have anything to do with the
cap thickness and what should be done is introduce a new kwarg "capthick"
or "capheight" and eventually have it completely replace the responsibility
of mew in errorbars.

Ben Root