Makie.jl: Why isn't centering the scene automatic for first plots?

[ChrisRackauckas]

The basic plotting commands all have to center!(scene) afterwards, can this be removed?

[ChrisRackauckas]

This messes with the easy "scene-free usage":

julia> using Makie

julia> scatter(rand(10), rand(10))
Scene scatter:
Dict{Symbol,Any} with 19 entries:
  :positions   => <Node: GeometryTypes.Point{2,Float32}[Float32[0.590564, 0.246…
  :strokecolor => <Node: RGBA{Float32}(0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0)>
  :visible     => <Node: true>
  :glowwidth   => <Node: 0.0>
  :scale       => <Node: Float32[1.0, 1.0, 1.0]>
  :markersize  => <Node: Float32[0.1, 0.1]>
  :camera      => <Node: :auto>
  :rotations   => <Node: Makie.Billboard()>
  :x           => <Node: [0.590565, 0.833756, 0.12991, 0.249585, 0.86067, 0.456…
  :strokewidth => <Node: 0.0>
  :light       => <Node: GeometryTypes.Vec{3,Float32}[Float32[1.0, 1.0, 1.0], F…
  :rotation    => <Node: Float32[0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0]>
  :model       => <Node: Float32[1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0; 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0; 0.0 0.0 1.0 …
  :marker      => <Node: GeometryTypes.HyperSphere{2,Float32}(Float32[0.0, 0.0]…
  :offset      => <Node: Float32[0.0, 0.0, 0.0]>
  :color       => <Node: RGBA{Float32}(0.894118,0.101961,0.109804,1.0)>
  :show        => <Node: true>
  :y           => <Node: [0.246589, 0.510987, 0.745296, 0.858083, 0.784647, 0.4…
  :glowcolor   => <Node: RGBA{Float32}(0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0)>

julia> center!() # fails

[mschauer]

Computing the bounding box can be quite intensive so it should be optional I believe.

[ChrisRackauckas]

Yes, it should definitely be optional, but I think the default is a little wrong right now.

scene = Scene(resolution = (500, 500))
scatter(rand(10), rand(10))
center!(scene)

as the most basic plot should really be

scatter(rand(10), rand(10))

like you'd find anywhere else. I think a good default would be to automatically center! the first time a plot is displayed. Otherwise, why display it is it's just going to give a random white image? Then, if you don't want it center!ed, build it up without displaying it or flip the option manually so you can display it and center it later.

[SimonDanisch]

Yes, of course! This will be part of the default plot recipe!

[ChrisRackauckas]

Is the plan to build a default plot recipe over the current plotting functions? I.e. plot as a default recipe?

[SimonDanisch]

Yes, that sounds like what I plan! I still haven't decided if I will change the behavior of e.g. a pure scatter call to do the same as plot, stay plain, or have a new low level scatter that will have the current behavior, and dispatch scatter to e.g. plot(Scatter(), args...; kw_args...)

[ChrisRackauckas]

That sounds like a very sensible way to handle it. plot(Scatter(), args...; kw_args...) would be a type-recipe on Scatter?

[SimonDanisch]

Yes, I think you can call it that! :)