[Matplotlib-users] API suggestion

[Simon B. <si...@ar...>]

Hi,

I've been working on a data entry app: the user clicks on a canvas to place scatter plot items.
The app also has an "eraser" to remove points. So, I'm having to get the collections attribute
from the axes, look at offsets, and remove items etc. It all feels like a real hack, eg.
the (older) installed version of matplotlib uses ._collections instead of (the newer) .collections attribute.

Well, I'd like to suggest adding a method or three to the axes class that allows a client
to get/change these items. It doesn't look like it would take much code.

Alternatively, I guess the app could just clear the axes and scatter down the points again, minus the
deleted point. This is not so clever though: as more items are added to the axes (lines/images etc.)
it would get more difficult to manage these. And since the axes already manages these items,
why not expose some kind of list-like add/remove methods ? Or is the (recently changed) collections attribute
the Right Way (TM) to do this kind of thing ?

ciao, (and by the way, I am immensly impressed with the matplotlib code)

Simon.

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Simon Burton, B.Sc.
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