On the one hand, yes, if you're looking at the API design and the docs from a "clean slate" perspective, then they are clearly not very good. [1] On the other

On the one hand, yes, if you're looking at the API design and the docs from a "clean slate" perspective, then they are clearly not very good. [1] On the other hand, matplotlib is ridiculously powerful as an embedded plotting library; the limiting factor there is definitely not flexibility, but rather performance, which limits applicability to larger data sets -- you can work around that in many ways, or use something different. (I wrote more than one application-specific OpenGL plot renderer). Performance also limits interactive use, especially on non-desktop devices. [1] Disclaimer: Very few technical docs I've seen for "modern" software are of convincing quality. Most are poor or don't exist in the first place. Further Disclaimer: I don't know how to do better and write docs I'd consider at best "meh-ok". People able to write technical texts well seem to be incredibly rare (likely an educational gap; besides 08/15 standard English courses I've never seen lectures or courses on technical writing at an university).