3 ms·

Definitely. One of the big problems, for me, is that there are at least two completely different interfaces with incompatible function names and arguments. Whil

Definitely. One of the big problems, for me, is that there are at least two completely different interfaces with incompatible function names and arguments. While the object-oriented interface is frequently recommended, the pyplot interface is more commonly seen in stackoverflow questions and answers. Official documentation often shows examples only using one or the other. So you might have a mostly-functioning Object-Oriented plotting script, then wonder something like "how can I create another set of y-axis tics going along the right, showing temperature in fahrenheit", and only find slightly-similar-but-incompatible explanations that use the Pyplot interface. It makes, by example, a pretty strong argument for not allowing multiple ways of doing something.

curiousgal 5y ago
What's the object-oriented interface? I've only ever used pyplot l.
- wswope 5y ago
  fig, ax = plt.subplots() then make calls on the Figure and Axes objects. https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/index.html#usage-patterns https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/index.html#usage-patterns
  - amelius 5y ago
    But note that, while it doesn't expose global state, it is still not thread-safe. The documentation only says that it "may work" and that there are specific things that will certainly crash when used from different threads. https://matplotlib.org/stable/faq/howto_faq.html https://matplotlib.org/stable/faq/howto_faq.html
rich_sasha 5y ago
I got my head around it eventually. Anything imperative that implicitly operates on the current figure/axes just calls the OO method on gcf / gca (get current figure / axes). I often use the imperative API as it’s less typing often, and I do a lot of throwaway plotting code. But some functionality only exists in the OO interface. Then it’s an easy trip to gca().my_oo_function() and you recovered the imperative version.
- jbay808 5y ago
  That's a good point. It might be less clear how to find the OO function that corresponds to a given imperative command.
  - icegreentea2 5y ago
    Kind of a crappy answer, but just read the source. pyplot is defined in a single file, so it's pretty search to search (for example here: https://matplotlib.org/stable/_modules/matplotlib/pyplot.html https://matplotlib.org/stable/_modules/matplotlib/pyplot.htm...). Or just clicky-click on 'source' link on the pyplot doc page for a call (for example: https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.axhspan.html https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot....) will take you to: https://matplotlib.org/stable/_modules/matplotlib/pyplot.html#axhspan https://matplotlib.org/stable/_modules/matplotlib/pyplot.htm... And for most (not all) of the functions, it's an easy read to figure out the OO call.

curiousgal 5y ago

What's the object-oriented interface? I've only ever used pyplot l.

wswope 5y ago
fig, ax = plt.subplots() then make calls on the Figure and Axes objects. https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/index.html#usage-patterns https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/index.html#usage-patterns
- amelius 5y ago
  But note that, while it doesn't expose global state, it is still not thread-safe. The documentation only says that it "may work" and that there are specific things that will certainly crash when used from different threads. https://matplotlib.org/stable/faq/howto_faq.html https://matplotlib.org/stable/faq/howto_faq.html

rich_sasha 5y ago

I got my head around it eventually. Anything imperative that implicitly operates on the current figure/axes just calls the OO method on gcf / gca (get current figure / axes). I often use the imperative API as it’s less typing often, and I do a lot of throwaway plotting code. But some functionality only exists in the OO interface. Then it’s an easy trip to gca().my_oo_function() and you recovered the imperative version.

jbay808 5y ago
That's a good point. It might be less clear how to find the OO function that corresponds to a given imperative command.
- icegreentea2 5y ago
  Kind of a crappy answer, but just read the source. pyplot is defined in a single file, so it's pretty search to search (for example here: https://matplotlib.org/stable/_modules/matplotlib/pyplot.html https://matplotlib.org/stable/_modules/matplotlib/pyplot.htm...). Or just clicky-click on 'source' link on the pyplot doc page for a call (for example: https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.axhspan.html https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot....) will take you to: https://matplotlib.org/stable/_modules/matplotlib/pyplot.html#axhspan https://matplotlib.org/stable/_modules/matplotlib/pyplot.htm... And for most (not all) of the functions, it's an easy read to figure out the OO call.