matplotlib#

Series: lecture-python-programming
File: lectures/matplotlib.md
Audit date: 2026-08-26
Corpus snapshot: ceec881028
Categories audited: writing, math, code, figures, links, admonitions (JAX out of scope)
Overall score: 7.6 / 10
Priority: HIGH

Score breakdown#

Category	Score	One-line note
Writing	4/10	`qe-writing-006` ×9; `qe-writing-005` ×4; `qe-writing-004` ×1, +1 more.
Math	10/10	no mechanical violations detected.
Code	7/10	`qe-code-001` ×5; `qe-code-003` ×1.
JAX	out of scope	JAX rules target `lecture-jax`.
Figures	4.5/10	`qe-fig-005` ×13; `qe-fig-003` ×3; `qe-fig-007` ×1, +3 more.
References	N/A	no citations in this lecture.
Links	10/10	no mechanical violations detected.
Admonitions	10/10	no mechanical violations detected.

None found.

[qe-code-001] (reviewer) — Follow PEP8 unless closer to mathematical notation. Count: 5. Lines: 306, 307, 358, 399, 481. Example: rnormX and rnormY (306-307, used at 308, 311, 314) are camelCase with no mathematical justification, where PEP8 wants rnorm_x; line 358 is a whitespace-only line inside a code cell; 399 has trailing whitespace after cycler('color', and the continuation at 400 is under-indented; and 481 has both whitespace before a closing bracket, np.cos(np.pi * θ * x ), and a space after the unary minus, np.exp(- x).
[qe-fig-001] — Do not set figure size unless necessary. Count: 8. Lines: 183, 213, 287, 289, 381, 384, 403, 435. Example: figsize=.
[qe-fig-005] — Descriptive figure names for cross-referencing. Count: 13. Lines: 59, 82, 103, 114, 123, 132, 157, 181, 201, 236, …. Example: {image} without :name:.
[qe-writing-006] — Capitalize lecture titles properly. Count: 9. Lines: 38, 78, 141, 148, 172, 194, 226, 265, 439. Example: H3 Title Case: “Matplotlib’s Split Personality” (Split, Personality).

[qe-code-003] — Package installation at lecture top. Count: 1. Lines: 1. Example: non-Anaconda import with no install cell: [‘cycler’].
[qe-fig-003] — No matplotlib embedded titles. Count: 3. Lines: 137, 190, 317. Example: .set_title.
[qe-writing-004] — Avoid unnecessary capitalization in narrative text. Count: 1. Lines: 42. Example: mid-sentence ‘Programming’.
[qe-writing-005] (reviewer) — Use bold for definitions, italic for emphasis. Count: 4. Lines: 42, 44, 267, 410. Example: the lecture contains no bold and no italic anywhere, so the three terms it defines are carried by quotation marks or plain text - the MATLAB-style API (42), the “Pythonic” object-oriented API (44) and style sheets (267) - and at 410 the emphasis on a plain English word is carried by a code span: “These settings are global”.

[qe-fig-002] — Prefer code-generated figures. Count: 1. Lines: 465. Example: static image .png.
[qe-fig-007] — Keep figure box and spines. Count: 1. Lines: 245. Example: spine removal.
[qe-fig-008] — Use lw=2 for line charts. Count: 1. Lines: 488. Example: plot() without lw=.
[qe-writing-003] (reviewer) — Maintain logical flow. Count: 1. Lines: 265. Example: “Style Sheets” runs 265-437, more than a third of the lecture, as an H3 sibling of one-paragraph sections like “3D Plots” (194) - in a section whose own opening says “We mention just a few” (146); and it mutates global plt.rcParams at 381-403, which then has to be undone by a reset cell at 430-437.

The lecture takes a position and argues for it: the MATLAB-style API is shown first (59-68), the same figure is rebuilt in the object-oriented API (82-86), and the recommendation at 46 is backed by the explicit-over-implicit argument at 72-74 with the import this pointer.
Each tweak is a one-line diff on the previous cell - colour, legend, legend location, LaTeX label, ticks (103-139) - so the reader can see exactly which line produced which change.
draw_graphs(style=...) (284-320) is the right abstraction for the style-sheet section: four style sheets are compared through one identical plotting path (327, 333, 339, 345).
The {note} at 408-414 warns that rcParams changes are global, and the lecture then actually resets them at 430-437 instead of leaving the notebook in a modified state.
The custom subplots function (237-248) is explained afterwards in three numbered steps (259-263) rather than left for the reader to decode.

Remove the three embedded matplotlib titles (137, 190, 317) - this is the lecture where readers learn the convention, so demonstrating set_title and suptitle here teaches against qe-fig-003; use figure captions instead.
Add :name: and a caption to the 13 figures (59, 82, 103, 114, 123, 132, 157, 181, 201, 236 …) - in the one lecture where figures are the subject, none is cross-referenceable, and the prose says “the preceding figure” (80).
Sentence-case the nine headings (38, 78, 141, 148, 172, 194, 226, 265, 439) and lowercase “Programming” mid-sentence at 42 (qe-writing-004).
Drop the eight figsize= overrides (183, 213, 287, 289, 381, 384, 403, 435) down to the two that genuinely need a non-default aspect - the 3x2 histogram grid and the 1x4 style comparison.
Add the cycler install cell at the top of the lecture (qe-code-003): from cycler import cycler at 373 is the only non-Anaconda import, and regenerate matplotlib_ex1.png (465) from code.
Clean the code cells: rnormX/rnormY to snake_case (306-307), the bracket and unary-minus spacing at 481, the whitespace-only line at 358, the trailing whitespace at 399, and the unused Axes3D import at 202.
Bold the three terms at first definition (42, 44, 267) and replace the code-span emphasis at 410 with italic; consider splitting “Style Sheets” into its own H2.