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DOC: Remove pyplot vs. OO interface discussion from lifecycle example #31423

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DOC: Remove pyplot vs. OO interface discussion from lifecycle example #31423

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29 changes: 0 additions & 29 deletions galleries/tutorials/lifecycle.py
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<https://pbpython.com/effective-matplotlib.html>`_
by Chris Moffitt. It was transformed into this tutorial by Chris Holdgraf.

A note on the explicit vs. implicit interfaces

@jklymak jklymak Mar 29, 2026

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Can we link to the quick start guide here as a way to guide users back to the rest of the docs?

https://matplotlib.org/stable/users/explain/quick_start.html

@timhoffm timhoffm Mar 29, 2026 •
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What makes this example special that warrants referencing the quick start guide?

The pyplot vs. OO was just here because the blog post from which the example was created was a general
https://pbpython.com/effective-matplotlib.html. But in the context of our own docs, we don't need to reference everything back to quick start. Instead, we assume that a user has the basic understanding from quickstart already.

@jklymak jklymak Mar 29, 2026

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It's written as a self-contained doc, so maintaining a bit of context via links seems useful. Crosslinking never hurts and we could do more of it

@timhoffm timhoffm Mar 30, 2026

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I'm of a different opinion here. Examples and tutorials in our docs can and should never be self-contained. You cannot jump into an arbitrary place of the docs and expect to understand it without prior knowledge.

Cross-linking hurts if the topic is not directly relevant to the content at hand because it dillutes focus and creates clutter.

Since we obviously have different opinions, I recuse myself from the topic, as such discusions typically lead nowhere. I leave it up to you guys to fix the lifecycle tutorial.

@jklymak jklymak Mar 30, 2026

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Sure fair enough, but I apologize if it seemed I was demanding this - it was just a suggestion, and you asked why I was making it, so I answered.

@story645 story645 Mar 30, 2026

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Examples and tutorials in our docs can and should never be self-contained.

I think that's a part of a larger discussion on modality and purpose. I also agree w/ @jklymak that a cross-reference is nice to have (here mostly to keep the spirit of the original) but I think removing this is a plus 'cause seperatly I think it's a bad idea to explain things twice cause that introduces the potential for drift.

==============================================

Matplotlib has two interfaces. For an explanation of the trade-offs between the
explicit and implicit interfaces see :ref:`api_interfaces`.

In the explicit object-oriented (OO) interface we directly utilize instances of
:class:`axes.Axes` to build up the visualization in an instance of
:class:`figure.Figure`. In the implicit interface, inspired by and modeled on
MATLAB, we use a global state-based interface which is encapsulated in the
:mod:`.pyplot` module to plot to the "current Axes". See the :ref:`pyplot
tutorials <pyplot_tutorial>` for a more in-depth look at the
pyplot interface.

Most of the terms are straightforward but the main thing to remember
is that:

* The `.Figure` is the final image, and may contain one or more `~.axes.Axes`.
* The `~.axes.Axes` represents an individual plot (not to be confused with
`~.axis.Axis`, which refers to the x-, y-, or z-axis of a plot).

We call methods that do the plotting directly from the Axes, which gives
us much more flexibility and power in customizing our plot.

.. note::

In general, use the explicit interface over the implicit pyplot interface
for plotting.

Our data
========

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