[Tutor] In matplotlib, why are there axes classes vs. axes API? Why not list them under one documentation?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, Jun 16, 2018 at 04:49:49AM +0000, Mike C wrote:

> I can only compare to the R language I've used. If there is an issue, 
> say a function freezes at startup, one user brings it up to the list, 
> when the respective maintainer sees the bug, it is usually addressed 
> on the next release.

You don't think that there might be a *slight* difference between these 
two situations?

    "Hi, maintainers of a highly popular language, here is an
    easily reproducable and clear bug in your language. Please
    fix it."

versus:

    "Hi, people on a low-volume mailing list for beginners, 
    there's a third-party library written by people completely
    unaffiliated with either you or the core developers of the
    language, but in my subjective opinion, its documentation
    sucks. Why isn't it fixed?"


> In terms of funding. Isn't Python heavily used in industry, so, 
> financial contribution should've been huge, no?

You might be surprised:

- how not huge they are;

- how much work it is to convince industry to pay for software 
  they can get for free;

- and how many other expenses there are, e.g. paying for admin
  staff, legal costs, hosting costs, funding community groups, etc.


I'm not saying the Python Software Foundation is crying poor, but 
neither do they have unlimited piles of cash they can just throw around 
at random.

Having said that, if a project like matplotlib went to them with a 
concrete proposal requiring funding, not just some nebulous "give us a 
bunch of cash and we'll make the docs more betterer!" it would probably 
be treated with all due consideration.


-- 
Steve