René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"[MNT]: Consider consolidating the Formatter API","articleBody":"### Summary\n\nInspired by https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/31392#pullrequestreview-4013806029\n\n\u003e Should we constrain the public API?\n\u003e\n\u003e In particular, I don't think `set_locs` is needed publically. Calling `format_ticks(values)` should be sufficent and it should be possible to make the `locs` state an implementation detail.\n\u003e\n\u003e Additionally, one could check / clarify the relation of `__call__` and `format_data`. Are both needed publically?\n\nAlso #5804 may be considered.\n\n### Proposed fix\n\nThis is a tracking item for the idea. It's not yet ready to be worked on, because we first need a deeper analysis on the current usage and a discussion on the desired API.\n\nPossible improvements:\n\n- Distinguish between configuration (e.g. base for LogFormatter) and context. Context is information extracted from a set of tick values that may influence how single ticks are rendered (e.g. precision or offset). The context is currently partly public. As a first step, we can make the context private (#31416). This will open up possibilities for re-architecting internal logic: Currently context is stored as persistent state on the Formatter, but we may be able to remove this state (will also require making `set_locs()` private.\n- ...\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/timhoffm","@type":"Person","name":"timhoffm"},"datePublished":"2026-03-26T17:11:46.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":0},"url":"https://github.com/31396/matplotlib/issues/31396"}