Re: [matplotlib-devel] Reorganizing axes plot methods

[Eric F. <ef...@ha...>]

On 2013/07/10 1:11 AM, Anton Akhmerov wrote:
> Eric Firing <efiring@...> writes:
>
>> This would require pyplot to be imported by everything, wouldn't it?
>> That would completely defeat the strategy of having an OO level that
>> doesn't know about pyplot at all, and then having pyplot be the thin top
>> layer.
>
> Requiring pyplot isn't necessary, instead one may merely check if it's
> available. The following is what we do in a similar situation:
>
>    try:
>        fake_fig = matplotlib.pyplot.figure()
>    except AttributeError:
>        msg = 'matplotlib.pyplot is unavailable.  Execute `import ' \
>        'matplotlib.pyplot` or use a different output mode.'
>        raise RuntimeError(msg)
>
> (obviously, one can substitute figure() call to gca())
>
> Anton

Anton,

Yes, I have done things like that in my own code, and basemap has a 
similar ability to call gca() when an Axes is not supplied.  One can 
even perform the pyplot import on an as-needed basis instead of raising 
an error. Nevetheless, it still represents what I view as a big change 
in mpl design, scrambling the state machine pyplot layer into the OO 
layer.  Sometimes this sort of thing is good, sometimes it isn't.  In 
the present case, I am far from convinced that it would be good.  I 
don't see any real benefit at all over the present design.  I think that 
for the sanity of the developers, if nothing else, it is important to 
maintain some clear layering and hierarchy.

Eric