[matplotlib-devel] Modifications to axis.py to allow more flexibility in positioning axis lines, ticks, etc.

[Tony Yu <ts...@gm...>]

I've been to trying add more flexible control over the axis lines,  
ticks, tick labels, etc., but I think I'm in over my head on this  
project. Again and again, I've settled on one approach only to  
completely rewrite it the next time I look at the code. I'm looking  
for some major design advice/ideas that will make the code simpler  
(AND maintain compatibility with the current implementation of Axis  
and Tick objects).

For simplicity, I've only made changes to the x-axis. Since this  
involves some major changes, I wrote this as a module that subclasses  
XTicks and XAxis as opposed to a patch on axis.py (which would be the  
ultimate, but at this point unlikely, goal). The attached module is  
quite long at the moment, but most of it is comments and methods  
copied (but slightly modified) from `axis.py`. I tried to document how/ 
why the method has changed if I copied the method.

Sorry for the code dump.
-Tony