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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Consider adding setters and getters associated with all Axes.format features","articleBody":"For consistency with the matplotlib API, all of the features implemented in `self.format()` should be implemented with setters and getters, then the axes can be updated with **native** `Artist.update` or `Artist.set` methods. Also, `Axes.format` will redirect to `update` and issue a deprecation warning.\r\n\r\nHere is some background:\r\n\r\n* The matplotlib API uses setters and getters for updating arbitrary abstract `Artist` classes, including the `Axes` class.\r\n* The matplotlib API also has `Artist.set` and `Artist.update` methods for **bulk** updating arbitrary artists. **Example usage**: If an artist has `set_linewidth` and `set_linestyle` methods, then `update` and `set` will accept `linewidth` and `linestyle` as keyword args and pass them to the setter.\r\n* Part of the inspiration for ProPlot was that I found line-by-line property setting to be very inefficient in day-to-day usage, and wanted one function for updating all aspects of the axes. The problems with `Artist.update` and `Artist.set` are:\r\n(1) almost on one uses them (especially with `Axes` artists), (2) they appear seldom in the examples, and (3) there is **no artist-specific documentation** on keyword arguments accepted by these methods, since they work by searching for arbtirary setters with `getattr(self, 'set_' + key)`, so only advanced users will learn how to use them.\r\n\r\nI think it is important for users to be able to modify arbitrary properties of python classes in place without a \"bulk\" function. However, it is also important for the sake of efficiency that users have this \"bulk\" function, and they should be **encouraged** to use the \"bulk\" one in the first place.\r\n\r\nWhere ProPlot can improve this is by **documenting the \"bulk\" function** by scanning the `Axes` attributes and building a numpydoc-style parameter table from the first line of every setter, and allowing people to pass keyword args to arbitrary setters with `{setting}_kw`-style arguments. Every ProPlot example will still use the bulk updater to encourage this for new users.\r\n\r\nA more bold option could be to monkey patch the matplotlib `Artist` class, overriding its `set` and `update` methods so that **every** artist is documented like this. But I think the PR will just start with axes.\r\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/lukelbd","@type":"Person","name":"lukelbd"},"datePublished":"2019-11-10T19:39:37.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":1},"url":"https://github.com/63/proplot/issues/63"}