5 ms·
> In my opinion, the default should always be zero. This won't work well for a lot of cases. Imagine plotting the atmospheric CO2 concentration time series in
by geoalchimista 7y ago
> In my opinion, the default should always be zero.
This won't work well for a lot of cases. Imagine plotting the atmospheric CO2 concentration time series in the past 200 years. Setting the original point at zero ppm would not make sense because it can never happen. I'd say setting y axis original point at y min is a good trade-off since the plotting package is agnostic about the underlying nature of the plot.
- datashow 7y agoI agree you may give a valid exception (I don't know the field), it may represent a large field. But I still think broadly speaking it is uncommon, but I don't have data to back it up.
- nemetroid 7y ago> Setting the original point at zero ppm would not make sense because it can never happen. Why does that matter? I disagree. A graph item representing the amount of stuff in some context should double in size (exactly) if the amount of stuff doubles.
- danso 7y agoI have mixed feelings. I agree that "y-axis should start at zero" should not be been as a sacred guideline by any means. But I reflexively feel that in the context of a data viz library, the default should be zero; thus requiring the user to explicitly set a minimum when needed, and to conscientiously do so. But I do realize that practically speaking, it is much easier to set a y-axis to 0 (i.e. a constant value), rather than having to calculate the y-min or near-y-min for every chart.
- mattkrause 7y agoHow would that work with negative data?
- datashow 7y agoWhat do you mean? Zero original point does not work with negative data?
- mattkrause 7y agoThe OP's suggestion was that the y-axis should start at zero by default, not min(y). However, this seems like it would lead to empty plots when the data is all or mostly negative.
- datashow 7y agoNot really. Plot can be shown above and below the x-axis.