[Matplotlib-users] steps in plot()

[Peter G. <pgr...@ge...>]

Hi:

Want to inquire about gnuplot's 'steps' like functionality in 
matplotlib's plotting. A good example is show here:

http://chem.skku.ac.kr/~wkpark/tutor/gnuplot/gpdocs/steps.htm

In a most hack-ish way possible, for the sake of testing I tried this 
(modified simple_plot.py example):

--------------
#!/usr/bin/env python

from matplotlib.matlab import *

figure(1)
t = arange(0.0, 1.0, 0.01)
s = sin(2*2*pi*t)

t2=concatenate((t[1:], array([t[-1]])), 1)
s2=concatenate((array([s[0]]), s[:-1]), 1)

hlines(s, t, t2)
vlines(t, s, s2)

gca().autoscale_view()   #Using 60.2; need to call this for the the 
parts below y=0 to be visible

xlabel('time (s)')
ylabel('voltage (mV)')
title('About as simple as it gets, folks')'
grid(True)
#axis([0,1,-1,1])
savefig('simple_plot')

show()
-------------

It seems to work quite nicely, but I think an ideal way of doing this 
would be to incorporate it into the plot() command. Perhaps adding an 
option 'steps' (following gnuplot's convention could have steps equal 
'histeps', 'fsteps' or just  'steps' - see link above.. None could mean 
regular plot() behavior).  I would say this would be the most elegant 
option, but probably would call for John (or someone else from the core 
developers) to make the changes. Alternatively we could use above and 
wrap it in a plot_step() function.

Any interest in this? If so which way do we want to go?

Peter