[matplotlib-devel] Polygon vs. Patch

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

This might be a stupid question, but what is the difference between a
Polygon and  Patch? A Polygon is subclassed from a Patch. The only real
substantial difference I see is that a Polygon object has logic flagging
and ensuring that it has a closed ring, but does that really merit a whole
new class?

What makes things even more confusing is that RegularPolygon and
CirclePolygon are not even subclassed from Polygon.

I wonder if we might want to consider folding in some of Polygon's
functionality into Patch, and simply let Polygon be an alias for Patch
(after all, a polygon is usually what people think of when they really want
a patch).

Just a thought.

Cheers!
Ben Root