[matplotlib-devel] Propose: dashed steps plot

[Manuel M. <mm...@as...>]

Hi all,
  I think I have finally found a nice way to implement step-plots with
different linestyles. The way this is done required some re-writing of
lines.py, but I think it is done in a consistent manner:

  A new property *drawstyle* is introduced. By default this just
connects the datapoints by a straight line. It can be set to "steps-***"
to create step-plots. So, the important point is that "steps-***" is no
longer a linestyle and thus it is possible to set the linestyle
independently. Additionally one can set a combined line- and drawstyle,
e.g. linestyle='steps-mid:'.
  The drawstyle property has the advantage, that one can add other ways
to draw the data naturally, for example one can think of a drawstyle
"bspline" that connects data-points using a spline, or something like a
moving-mean plot.

  The patch is applied and also an example and its output. If there are
no objections, I will commit the patch soon.

Any comments ???

Manuel