| ===================================== |
| MEP12: Improve Gallery and Examples |
| ===================================== |
| .. contents:: |
| :local: |
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| Status |
| ====== |
|
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| **Progress** |
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| Initial changes added in 1.3. Conversion of the gallery is on-going. |
| 29 September 2015 - The last ``pylab_examples`` where ``pylab`` is imported has |
| been converted over to use :mod:`matplotlib.pyplot` and `numpy`. |
|
|
| Branches and Pull requests |
| ========================== |
|
|
| #1623, #1924, #2181 |
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| PR `#2474 <https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/2474>`_ |
| demonstrates a single example being cleaned up and moved to the |
| appropriate section. |
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| Abstract |
| ======== |
|
|
| Reorganizing the matplotlib plot gallery would greatly simplify |
| navigation of the gallery. In addition, examples should be cleaned-up |
| and simplified for clarity. |
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| Detailed description |
| ==================== |
|
|
| The matplotlib gallery was recently set up to split examples up into |
| sections. As discussed in that PR [1]_, the current example sections |
| (``api``, ``pylab_examples``) aren't terribly useful to users: New |
| sections in the gallery would help users find relevant examples. |
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| These sections would also guide a cleanup of the examples: Initially, |
| all the current examples would remain and be listed under their |
| current directories. Over time, these examples could be cleaned up |
| and moved into one of the new sections. |
|
|
| This process allows users to easily identify examples that need to be |
| cleaned up; i.e. anything in the ``api`` and ``pylab_examples`` |
| directories. |
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| Implementation |
| ============== |
|
|
| 1. Create new gallery sections. [Done] |
| 2. Clean up examples and move them to the new gallery sections (over the course |
| of many PRs and with the help of many users/developers). [In progress] |
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|
| Gallery sections |
| ---------------- |
|
|
| The naming of sections is critical and will guide the clean-up |
| effort. The current sections are: |
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| * Lines, bars, and markers (more-or-less 1D data) |
| * Shapes and collections |
| * Statistical plots |
| * Images, contours, and fields |
| * Pie and polar charts: Round things |
| * Color |
| * Text, labels, and annotations |
| * Ticks and spines |
| * Subplots, axes, and figures |
| * Specialty plots (e.g., sankey, radar, tornado) |
| * Showcase (plots with tweaks to make them publication-quality) |
| * separate sections for toolboxes (already exists: 'mplot3d', |
| 'axes_grid', 'units', 'widgets') |
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| These names are certainly up for debate. As these sections grow, we |
| should reevaluate them and split them up as necessary. |
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| Clean up guidelines |
| ------------------- |
|
|
| The current examples in the ``api`` and ``pylab_examples`` sections of |
| the gallery would remain in those directories until they are cleaned |
| up. After clean-up, they would be moved to one of the new gallery |
| sections described above. "Clean-up" should involve: |
|
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| * `sphinx-gallery docstrings <https://sphinx-gallery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>`_: |
| a title and a description of the example formatted as follows, at the top of |
| the example:: |
| |
| """ |
| =============================== |
| Colormaps alter your perception |
| =============================== |
|
|
| Here I plot the function |
|
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| .. math:: f(x, y) = \sin(x) + \cos(y) |
|
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| with different colormaps. Look at how colormaps alter your perception! |
| """ |
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|
| * PEP8_ clean-ups (running `flake8 |
| <https://pypi.org/project/flake8/>`_, or a similar checker, is |
| highly recommended) |
| * Commented-out code should be removed. |
| * Replace uses of `pylab` interface with `.pyplot` (+ `numpy`, |
| etc.). See `c25ef1e |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/c25ef1e02b3a0ecb279492409dac0de9b3d2c0e2>`_ |
| * Remove shebang line, e.g.:: |
|
|
| #!/usr/bin/env python |
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| * Use consistent imports. In particular:: |
|
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| import numpy as np |
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| import matplotlib.pyplot as plt |
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| Avoid importing specific functions from these modules (e.g. ``from |
| numpy import sin``) |
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| * Each example should focus on a specific feature (excluding |
| ``showcase`` examples, which will show more "polished" |
| plots). Tweaking unrelated to that feature should be removed. See |
| `f7b2217 |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/f7b2217a1f92343e8aca0684d19c9915cc2e8674>`_, |
| `e57b5fc |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/e57b5fc31fbad83ed9c43c77ef15368efdcb9ec1>`_, |
| and `1458aa8 |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/1458aa87c5eae9dd99e141956a6adf7a0f3c6707>`_ |
|
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| Use of `pylab` should be demonstrated/discussed on a dedicated help |
| page instead of the gallery examples. |
|
|
| **Note:** When moving an existing example, you should search for |
| references to that example. For example, the API documentation for |
| :file:`axes.py` and :file:`pyplot.py` may use these examples to generate |
| plots. Use your favorite search tool (e.g., grep, ack, `grin |
| <https://pypi.org/project/grin/>`_, `pss |
| <https://pypi.org/project/pss/>`_) to search the matplotlib |
| package. See `2dc9a46 |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/2dc9a4651e5e566afc0866c603aa8d06aaf32b71>`_ |
| and `aa6b410 |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/aa6b410f9fa085ccf5f4f962a6f26af5beeae7af>`_ |
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| Additional suggestions |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
|
|
| * Provide links (both ways) between examples and API docs for the |
| methods/objects used. (issue `#2222 |
| <https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/2222>`_) |
| * Use ``plt.subplots`` (note trailing "s") in preference over |
| ``plt.subplot``. |
| * Rename the example to clarify it's purpose. For example, the most |
| basic demo of ``imshow`` might be ``imshow_demo.py``, and one |
| demonstrating different interpolation settings would be |
| ``imshow_demo_interpolation.py`` (*not* ``imshow_demo2.py``). |
| * Split up examples that try to do too much. See `5099675 |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/509967518ce5ce5ba31edf12486ffaa344e748f2>`_ |
| and `fc2ab07 |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/fc2ab07cc586abba4c024d8c0d841c4357a3936f>`_ |
| * Delete examples that don't show anything new. |
| * Some examples exercise esoteric features for unit testing. These |
| tweaks should be moved out of the gallery to an example in the |
| ``unit`` directory located in the root directory of the package. |
| * Add plot titles to clarify intent of the example. See `bd2b13c |
| <https://github.com/tonysyu/matplotlib/commit/bd2b13c54bf4aa2058781b9a805d68f2feab5ba5>`_ |
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| Backward compatibility |
| ====================== |
|
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| The website for each Matplotlib version is readily accessible, so |
| users who want to refer to old examples can still do so. |
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| Alternatives |
| ============ |
|
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| Tags |
| ---- |
|
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| Tagging examples will also help users search the example gallery. Although tags |
| would be a big win for users with specific goals, the plot gallery will remain |
| the entry point to these examples, and sections could really help users |
| navigate the gallery. Thus, tags are complementary to this reorganization. |
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| .. _PEP8: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/ |
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| .. [1] https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/714 |
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|
