Re: [matplotlib-devel] Reorganizing axes plot methods

[Anton A. <ant...@gm...>]

Eric Firing <efiring@...> writes:
> 
> 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
>

I completely agree with that, and I just wanted to point out the possibility. 
With the proposed separation of the plots to a separate module, I think, the 
reasonable thing for pyplot would be to wrap the corresponding plot functions 
by feeding gca into the axis argument.

PS for what I think, pyplot right now is way too thick of a layer, 
obstructing an API use of backends.

Anton