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0 pointsjstx14y ago0 comments

Yes, it is crazy. I guess this isn't really the place for it but ... From the official docs:

    The Figure is the final image that may contain 1 or more Axes.

    The Axes represent an individual plot (don't confuse this with the word "axis", which refers to the x/y axis of a plot).

This is infuriatingly bad and I firmly believe that it makes sense only to people who already know how it works. There's an image, axes (this word alone is a crime), plot, figure... it's like they took a bunch of synonyms and arranged them randomly to put together an API.

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3 comments · 1 top-level

dylan6044y ago· 2 in thread

>axes (this word alone is a crime),

why so? you prefer something like axiis?

jstx1OP4y ago

See, that's the thing:

> Axes object is the region of the image with the data space.

In matplotlib axes is not the plural of axis. It has its own meaning specific to the API. And at the same time it's the plural form of another word (axis) which is also relevant in this context and it sounds almost identical when pronounced.

fault14y ago

I like the wording in the MATLAB docs (since Matlab committed the original sin, the axes/axis/figure API has been around since the late '80s, matplotlib is just a port to python):

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/axes.html

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/axis.html

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/figure.html

So they emphasize the cartesianess of the axes.

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