[Matrix-SIG] algorithm for intelligent axis scaling?

Roger Burnham rburnham@cri-inc.com
Thu, 18 Mar 1999 12:48:58 -800


On 18 Mar 99, at 11:47, Alexander Lawhead mused:

> This is not directly a NumPy question, but I figured that the best answer
> might come from this group. :) I'm looking for a simple algorithm for
> generating intelligent axis scalings for a graph. Basically what I need is
> the axis minimum, axis maximum, and step length between ticks given the
> minimum data value, maximum data value, and suggested number of ticks.
> By intelligent, I mean reasonably intuitive rounding for the axis labels!
> 
> This should be easy, but I'm afraid I've been spoiled by automagical
> plotting in countless canned graphics packages. Any help would be
> appreciated.
> 

Just today, I downloaded Richard Jones' PILGraph 0.1 package that was recently 
announced on c.l.p.  Available at

http://redback.spyda.net/~richard/PILGraph-0.1a1.tar.gz

It has just such an algo.

Cheers,

Roger Burnham   
Cambridge Research & Instrumentation   
rburnham@cri-inc.com   
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