Re: [matplotlib-devel] Plot or Not: voting to create better matplotlibrc

[David P. S. <dps...@ci...>]

On Sat, Jul 20, 2013 at 8:48 PM, Chris Beaumont <bea...@ha...> wrote:

> 'image.cmap' -- nice! Shows how much I know :)
>
> I don't fully agree with Eric that changing the defaults should be treated
> as an API break -- yes, it may irritate a minority of users, but their code
> will still run. I'd flip around your argument for the role of rcParams and
> customization: the majority user is probably someone who doesn't know much
> about rcParams, or all the ways plots can be customized. *That* is the use
> case to optimize, not the "legacy" users invested in the current style.
>

I whole-heartedly agree.



>
> However, default tweaking need not be painful. As has been mentioned, a
> first step would be an easier way to change a whole set of rcParams:
> something like mpl.set_style('style-name'). As long as one style is
> 'classic', users can keep the current style for as long as they want. It's
> a one line fix, and could even be rcParams-settable.
>

This is already implemented! The problem is, it's hidden away in the
mpltools toolkit:

http://tonysyu.github.io/mpltools/

which nobody seems to know about or use, which is a great shame, since it's
first class -- great job, Tony!

The first example there is:

>>> from mpltools import style>>> style.use('ggplot')

and then the plot is suddenly jaw-droppingly beautiful!

This is achieved with style files which just have lists of matplotlib
params like this:

patch.linewidth = 0.5
patch.facecolor = '#348ABD'  # blue
patch.edgecolor = '#EEEEEE'
patch.antialiased = True

These are parsed using the ConfigObj package (this package parses config
files of this type).

Somebody (Chris?) tweeted something about the Vega package earlier:
http://trifacta.github.io/vega/

They seem to have these kind of things solved already (disclaimer: I only
browsed briefly their site) using JSON, but actually Tony's approach seems
like a winner.

mpltools may be installed with

> pip install ConfigObj
> pip install mpltools

[For some reason the dependency on ConfigObj is not registered in mpltools.
Tony, are you the packager?]

This is all *crying out* to be dropped straight into matplotlib proper!

David






>
> With such a framework, it would be possible for people to contribute new
> styles that ship with MPL, and users could change styles without having to
> find (and potentially merge) rcParams files from the web. Finally, people
> could nominate that mature styles be made default (you could even assign
> version numbers to track the default style as it evolves towards visual
> awesomeness)
>
> chris
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 20, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Eric Firing <ef...@ha...> wrote:
>
>> On 2013/07/20 2:38 PM, David P. Sanders wrote:
>> > And this is my problem with 'rc':  it brings to mind an arcane config
>> > file hidden away somewhere that has a terrible syntax and must not be
>> > touched.
>> >
>> > As Chris and Adrian have emphasized, the point is that we *should* be
>> > tweaking away at the parameters all the time.
>> > I propose to rename as  mpl_params=rcParams
>> >
>>
>> Yes, mpl_params is more descriptive and easy to remember.  rcParams is
>> ugly, obscure, and archaic.  It will have to remain available for a long
>> time, but I don't object to changing standard usage to a nicer name.
>> There might even be a better name than "mpl_params"--"settings" comes to
>> mind, or maybe "style".
>>
>> As for parameter tweaking: the defaults shipped with mpl should be
>> changed only rarely, but we should make it as easy as possible for users
>> to customize plots, including coming up with good combinations of style
>> parameters.  In some cases it makes sense to do this via a matplotlibrc
>> file, in other cases it is better to do the parameter setting explicitly
>> at the top of a script.
>>
>> Regarding defaults, note that I said "rarely", not "never".
>>
>> The whole rc system could use a good review--maybe resulting in lots of
>> changes, maybe not--so I welcome the attention you are directing to it.
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics
>> Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics
>> Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds.
>> Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today!
>>
>> http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
>> _______________________________________________
>> Matplotlib-devel mailing list
>> Mat...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ************************************
> Chris Beaumont
> Graduate Student
> Institute for Astronomy
> University of Hawaii at Manoa
> 2680 Woodlawn Drive
> Honolulu, HI 96822
> www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~beaumont
> ************************************
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics
> Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics
> Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds.
> Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today!
> http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
> _______________________________________________
> Matplotlib-devel mailing list
> Mat...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel
>
>


-- 
Dr. David P. Sanders

Profesor Titular "A" / Associate Professor
Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

dps...@ci...
http://sistemas.fciencias.unam.mx/~dsanders

Cubículo / office: #414, 4o. piso del Depto. de Física

Tel.: +52 55 5622 4965