Re: [Matplotlib-users] Undocumented transform API change between 1.1 and 1.2?

[Joe K. <jof...@gm...>]

On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 2:45 AM, Phil Elson <pel...@gm...> wrote:

> Hi Joe,
>
> Thanks for bringing this up, it is certainly valuable to highlight this on
> the mailinglist. As you say, the change is hard to spot and, I agree, makes
> library code supporting v1.1.1 and v1.2 harder than one would like.
> Typically, anything which is going to break core APIs (even slightly)
> should be documented under the "API Changes" page here
> http://matplotlib.org/api/api_changes.html#changes-in-1-2-x .


Thanks! I wasn't aware of that page! (and it does a very nice job of
documenting the changes!)


> You will find there were quite a few changes made relating to transforms
> which I think is entirely my doing, so at least we know who the guilty
> party is :-)
>
> Thanks for spotting the example failure - I split these changes over many
> separate pull requests and did scan the gallery for any noticeable changes,
> but this one must have slipped the net.
>
> If you're still having problems with using the newer transform API, please
> shout and I'd be happy to have a look for you.
>

Will do, thanks for the offer!


>
> All the best,
>
> Phil
>
>
> On 9 December 2012 22:10, Joe Kington <jof...@gm...> wrote:
>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> At some point transforms.Transform was slightly refactored.
>> (Particularly, this commit:
>> https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/commit/8bbe2e55f29b28ba558504b27596b8e36a087c1c)  This changed what methods need to be overridden when subclassing
>> Transform.
>>
>> All in all, it seems like a very sensible change, but it led to some very
>> hard-to-find bugs in some of my code that subclasses transforms.Transform.
>> I thought I would mention it on the mailing list for anyone else that uses
>> custom projections. Forgive me if it was mentioned earlier and I just
>> didn't notice.
>>
>> With versions 1.1.x and older, one had to directly implement a transformmethod when subclassingtransforms.Transform,
>> otherwise a NotImplemented error would be raised.
>>
>> With versions 1.2.x and newer, the preferred way appears to be to
>> implement things in a separate transform_affine or transform_non_affinemethod and not explicitly implement a
>> transform method.
>>
>> If you implement the non-affine portion directly in the transform method
>> without overriding transform_non_affine, it leads to strange drawing
>> bugs with v1.2 that did not occur with older versions.  (For example, this
>> broke one of the examples in the gallery between 1.1. and 1.2:
>> http://matplotlib.org/1.1.1/examples/api/custom_projection_example.html
>> http://matplotlib.org/1.2.0/examples/api/custom_projection_example.html. I just submitted a pull request to update the example, by the way.)
>>
>> On the other hand, for compatibility with versions 1.1 and older, you
>> have to explicitly implement the transform method as well, otherwise
>> you'll get the NotImplemented error.
>>
>> Therefore, now one needs to explicitly implement *_both_* the
>> transform_non_affine and transform methods of a custom non-affine
>> transform for compatibility with 1.1 and older as well as 1.2 and newer.
>>
>> Similarly, one needs to implement* _both_ *the transform_path_non_affineand the
>> transform_path methods for compatibility with newer and older versions
>> of matplotlib.
>>
>> Arguably, it should have always been done this way, but  based onexamples/api/custom_projection_example.py,
>> I (and I suspect many other people as well)  implemented the transform
>> directly as the transform method when subclassing Transform, instead of
>> separately in a transform_affine or transform_non_affine method.
>>
>> Is this a large enough change to warrant a mention in the changelog? (On
>> the other hand, the mailing list probably gets a lot more eyes on it than
>> the changelog...)
>>
>> Thanks!
>> -Joe
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> LogMeIn Rescue: Anywhere, Anytime Remote support for IT. Free Trial
>> Remotely access PCs and mobile devices and provide instant support
>> Improve your efficiency, and focus on delivering more value-add services
>> Discover what IT Professionals Know. Rescue delivers
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/logmein_12329d2d
>> _______________________________________________
>> Matplotlib-users mailing list
>> Mat...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>>
>>
>