[Matplotlib-devel] Documentation

[Hannah]

On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 8:56 PM, Chris Barker - NOAA Federal <
chris.barker at noaa.gov> wrote:

>
> but calling methods on existing objects is not: you can’t get very far in
> python without using the methods of the buil-ins: lists, dicts, strings....
>

I agree that you can't get very far in Python without it, but it still
majorly confuses the audiences I work with. Quite literally, the
demarcation my fellowship makes between the Python 101 and 201 we teach is
how explicitly we go into using objects. So I think an intro should provide
at least a soft explanation of methods/objects/etc.


>  they're all pyplot, but that seems to be the preferred intro-and I wonder
> if it'd be good for matplotlib to have more bridge documentation that
> doesn't just show how to do things both ways but explains why the OO way is
> better.
>
>
> Yup. And I don’t think pyplot is any easier for newbies—other than
> existing Matlab users — admittedly a big group.
>

It is and it isn't. While it's technically still OO, I think it ends up
feeling weirdly declarative just keep layering these things (kinda like
ggplot), rather than the explicit here's an axis and attach information to
it. It seems like a super trivial distinction but I think it may be a
barrier for some people (also why I think a survey could be good here.)


> I say introduce the OO interface, then have a “matplotlib for Matlab
> users” section to translate for them.
>
I like this approach too.
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