Re: [matplotlib-devel] matplotlib Hangout today at 14:00 UTC (10:00am ET)

[Daniele N. <da...@gr...>]

On 24/10/2013 21:26, Paul Ivanov wrote:
> One quick reply:
> 
> Daniele Nicolodi, on 2013-10-24 21:03,  wrote:
>> One thing I dislike is, for example, the add_subplot() method:
>>
>> f = plt.figure()
>> a = f.add_subplot(111)
>> a.plot(x, y)
>>
>> it feels completely out of place (why I need to add a subplot if the
>> only thing I want to do is to create a figure with a single plot in it?)
>> and kind of magic (what is the number 111?).
>  
>   f, a = plt.subplots()
>   a.plot(x, y)

That's better, however to create _sub_ plots to have a single plot into
a figure still feels weird, also I would expect it to be a method of the
Figure class and not a top level function.  Furthermore, most
documentation refers to add_subplot() and not subplots() which has a
more understandable function signature.

In principle I think the current API violates the "There should be one--
and preferably only one --obvious way to do it" rule here, and elsewhere :-)

I feel the way forward should be to create a cleaner API and map the
current one through a compatibility layer to that.

Cheers,
Daniele