René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"[Bug]: Setting font.sans-serif is impossible by the intended way using matplotlib.rc because it contains a hyphen.","articleBody":"### Bug summary\n\nThe functions `matplotlib.rc` and `matplotlib.pyplot.rc` process settings given as named parameters. Named parameters can't contain hyphens; therefore, it is impossible to set `font.sans-serif` so because it contains a hyphen.\n\nIt is possible to set the parameter by different means, but this seems like the main way, so I consider that it does not work a significant shortcoming. How else this parameter can be set:\n- `matplotlib.rcParams[\"font.sans-serif\"] = \"Fira Sans\"`\n- `matplotlib.rc(\"font\", **{\"sans-serif\": \"Fira Sans\"})`\n\n\n### Code for reproduction\n\n```Python\nfrom matplotlib import rc\nrc(\"font\", sans-serif=\"Fira Sans\")\n```\n\n### Actual outcome\n\n```\n\u003e\u003e\u003e from matplotlib import rc\n\u003e\u003e\u003e rc(\"font\", sans-serif=\"Fira Sans\")\n  File \"\u003cpython-input-1\u003e\", line 1\n    rc(\"font\", sans-serif=\"Fira Sans\")\n               ^^^^^^^^^^^\nSyntaxError: expression cannot contain assignment, perhaps you meant \"==\"?\n```\n\n### Expected outcome\n\nI think that that the parameter is named `font.sans-serif` is a mistake, and it should be named something like `font.sans_serif` with an underscore. It may be too late to change that, but an alias would work. `rc` already has aliases like `lw` → `linewidth`, `ls` → `linestyle`, `c` → `color`. I expect that there would be an alias like `sans` → `sans-serif` so I could use `rc(\"font\", sans=\"Fira Sans\")`.\n\n### Additional information\n\n_No response_\n\n### Operating system\n\n_No response_\n\n### Matplotlib Version\n\n3.10.1\n\n### Matplotlib Backend\n\n_No response_\n\n### Python version\n\nPython 3.13.3\n\n### Jupyter version\n\n_No response_\n\n### Installation\n\nNone","author":{"url":"https://github.com/matj1","@type":"Person","name":"matj1"},"datePublished":"2025-05-06T17:18:30.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":1},"url":"https://github.com/30021/matplotlib/issues/30021"}