Re: [matplotlib-devel] Building documentation and matplotlibrc

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

On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 12:32 PM, John Hunter <jd...@gm...> wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 12:22 PM, John Hunter <jd...@gm...> wrote:
>
> > matplotlib_fname() always returns absolute path.  I have not used
> > realpath, but if you think there is a use for it here, feel free to
> > post an amended patch.
>
> There is an exception to this -- if MATPLOTLIBRC or MPLCONFIGDIR are
> relative paths, then matplotlib_fname will return a relative path too.
>

Ah, all the more reason to apply abspath() or realpath().  To decide which
to use, let's consider the case of someone (like a developer) having
multiple builds of matplotlib in separate directories, and uses a symlink to
point to whichever he wants to use at the moment.

The question is, in this use-case, would we want the symbolic link pathname,
or the absolute pathname?  I don't mess around with docs  enough to know
which I would want.

I have attached a modified patch (which uses realpath(), but could easily be
changed to abspath()).  I also included some comments to more fully document
what is going on and the rational for the logic being taken.

Ben Root

P.S. - Just to make sure,  I noticed that rcParamsOrig is only in the
maintenance branch.  It was intended to leave the development branch
"broken" for now until we get this working properly?