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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Cleaning up variable argument signatures","articleBody":"There are a lot of `*args, **kwargs` signatures in the API. In many cases, they could be better described by explicit arguments/kw-arguments. This makes for a more clear API and reduces the chance of unintended misuse.\r\n\r\nFor example [pyplot.delaxes](https://matplotlib.org/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.delaxes.html#matplotlib.pyplot.delaxes)\r\n~~~\r\ndef delaxes(*args):\r\n    \"\"\"...\"\"\"\r\n    if not len(args):\r\n        ax = gca()\r\n    else:\r\n        ax = args[0]\r\n    ...\r\n~~~\r\n\r\nwould be more clear with\r\n\r\n~~~\r\ndef delaxes(ax=None):\r\n    \"\"\"...\"\"\"\r\n    if ax is None:\r\n        ax = gca()\r\n    ...\r\n~~~\r\n\r\nFor all intended uses, the API compatibility is preserved. Unreasonable and possibly wrong uses like\r\n`delaxes(ax1, ax2)` or `delaxes(ax, mykwarg=True)` would raise an Exception after the change. In itself, this is a benefit, because these cases will then be detected as false usage. However it may break existing programs.\r\n\r\nBefore I do any pull requests, is there a policy how to handle such cases?\r\n\r\n- Do you want to change these things, or should they be left as they are:\r\n  - for cases like the above one where arguments are directly resolved in the function/method?\r\n  - for cases where the all the arguments are passed like e.g. `pyplot.savefig`?\r\n- Which branch should changes go into?\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/timhoffm","@type":"Person","name":"timhoffm"},"datePublished":"2017-12-02T13:07:40.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":10},"url":"https://github.com/9912/matplotlib/issues/9912"}