[Matplotlib-announce] ANN: matplotlib-0.74

What's new in matplotlib 0.74

basic unicode support in *Agg and PS

  See examples/unicode_demo.py.  Unicode strings are rendered in the
  agg and postscript backends.  Currently, all the symbols in the
  unicode string have to be in the active font file.  In later
  releases we'll try and support symbols from multiple ttf files in
  one string.  No support yet for unicode ttf filenames

Auto-legends

  The automatic placement of legends is now supported with loc='best';
  see examples/legend_auto.py.  We did this at the matplotlib sprint
  at pycon -- Thanks John Gill and Phil! Note that your legend will
  move if you interact with your data and you force data under the
  legend line.  If this is not what you want, use a designated
  location code.

Quiver (direction fields)

  Ludovic Aubry contributed a patch for the matlab compatible quiver
  method.  This makes a direction field with arrows.  See
  examples/quiver_demo.py

boxplot

  David Haas contributed a matlab-compatible boxplot function -- see
  examples/boxplot_demo.py.  This currently returns all the boxplot
  boxes, whiskers, flyer points, etc as a list of lines.  This will
  soon be refactored to return multiple lists so that the different
  elements can be more readily configured.

Hubble data example

  Perry Greenfield of STScIcontributed this nice example showing
  Hubble data with overlayed
  contours. http://matplotlib.sf.net/screenshots.html#hstdemo

minor enhancements and bug-fixes

  Some ticker locations bugs were fixed including a problem causing a
  memory error in psd, an ellipse bug in backend ps that was causing
  errant lines was fixed, svg text enhanced, added label kwarg to axes
  constructor to support creation of otherwise identical axes, fixed
  the NULL string pointer causing some Japanses fonts to segfault mpl

Downloads at http://matplotlib.sf.net

JDH