matplotlib-devel Mailing List for matplotlib

On 31 January 2014 22:43, Benjamin Root <ben...@ou...> wrote:
> Thanks for bringing this back onto the mailing list.
>
> I am excited for the prospect of new algorithms for contouring. My company
> has actually been using the contourf() function for the past few years to
> generate the polygons from gridded data to then make shapefiles from those
> polygons. Having an rcParam and a kwarg for controlling which algorithm
> gets used for contouring would be good for us when we transition to any new
> algorithms.
>
It is good to hear that it will be useful.
> I also advocate strongly for better separation between the plotting and
> the contouring. I made an attempt awhile back for my work to not have to
> call contourf() so that my shapefile library code wouldn't interfere with
> anybody's plotting that they happen to be doing, but I just couldn't get a
> clean separation. I ended up having to wrap my contouring code as a
> sub-process.
>
This is not in the scope of the work I am doing - see my previous answer to
Eric.
> Do keep me in the loop about this, as I have a fairly substantial data
> source for testing.
>
Excellent, testing by others will be much appreciated. I won't submit a PR
on this until after the impending release so there is plenty of time for
testing before the release after that.
Ian

On 31 January 2014 19:51, Eric Firing <ef...@ha...> wrote:
> Would the new code be substantially simpler if the blocky capability were
> omitted from it? If so, then it seems like it would makes sense to leave
> the blocky form to the old code.
>
Simpler, yes, but not substantially so. I would prefer to keep both blocky
and corner-cutting algorithms together so that there is only one extension
to maintain when we eventually remove the old code.
One thing to keep in mind is the desire for a cleaner separation between
> the generation of the contours and their plotting. Sometimes one actually
> wants the polygons themselves; for example, topographic contours can be
> used to define boundaries for internal wave flux calculations. A student
> here at UH is doing exactly this.
>
That is certainly desirable, but not part of the work I am doing. I am
rewriting the C/C++ code that calculates the contours, but the interface
between that and the python contour code remains the same, apart from some
trivial changes of course.
Ian