matplotlib-devel Mailing List for matplotlib

On Sat, Sep 09, 2006 at 10:40:47AM -0600, Fernando Perez wrote:
> On 9/9/06, John Hunter <jdh...@ac...> wrote:
> > >>>>> "Fernando" =3D=3D Fernando Perez <Fer...@co...> =
writes:
> > Fernando> What I think could be improved in the default behavior
> > Fernando> is the legend. I'm sure there's a way to get the resul=
t
> > Fernando> even today
> > Indeed
> > legend(numpoints=3D2)
> > or set your rc setting
> > legend.numpoints =3D 2
> Great, thanks!
> > I'll change the default rc setting to two points if noone objects.
> +1 from me.
+1 from me to.
Ga=EBl

On 9/9/06, John Hunter <jdh...@ac...> wrote:
> >>>>> "Fernando" == Fernando Perez <Fer...@co...> writes:
>
> Fernando> What I think could be improved in the default behavior
> Fernando> is the legend. I'm sure there's a way to get the result
> Fernando> even today
>
> Indeed
>
> legend(numpoints=2)
>
> or set your rc setting
>
> legend.numpoints = 2
Great, thanks!
> I'll change the default rc setting to two points if noone objects.
+1 from me.
Cheers,
f

>>>>> "Fernando" == Fernando Perez <Fer...@co...> writes:
 Fernando> What I think could be improved in the default behavior
 Fernando> is the legend. I'm sure there's a way to get the result
 Fernando> even today
Indeed
 legend(numpoints=2)
or set your rc setting
 legend.numpoints = 2
I'll change the default rc setting to two points if noone objects.
JDH

Hi all,
I have a suggestion to make regarding the default results for legends when 
plots have both lines and markers. Consider the following plot commands:
plot(range(10),marker='o',linestyle='-',markerfacecolor='r',label='data')
legend()
I've attached a small png of what I get on my system, with a very recent svn 
build.
This is a common (at least for me) way to plot data points with a line for 
visual aid connecting the dots.
What I think could be improved in the default behavior is the legend. I'm 
sure there's a way to get the result even today, I'm just advocating for an 
improved out-of-the-box output. Currently, the code puts so many markers in 
the legend that the line is not visible. This isn't very pretty, nor very 
useful. In contrast, I think the gnuplot default behavior is a lot better, 
see this page for a simple example (no, I don't think that graph looks better 
than mpl, I just think the way /legend/ labels are created is clearer):
http://www.sbml.org/software/libsbml/libsbml-vs-xerces-dom-memusage.png
What I think would be a better default legend behavior than the current one 
would be either (ascii art, with 0 denoting a marker and - a line):
 (a) 0---0 OR (b) --0--
meaning two markers bracketing a bit of the line, or (like gnuplot) two line 
segments bracketing a single marker. The advantage of (a) IMO is that with 
dashed lines it is easier to read than (b), since there's a longer continuous 
section of line.
Just a suggestion...
f