Plots.jl/NEWS.md

# Plots.jl NEWS

#### notes on release changes, ongoing development, and future planned work

- I (@tbreloff) am in development of totally revamped internals, in which much of the logic in building series is changed to recursively stacking recipes in a modular fashion.  I'll write a blog post sometime soon detailing why this is amazing, but for now you can get a taste of it by looking at the [RecipesBase readme](https://github.com/JuliaPlots/RecipesBase.jl)
- Version 0.6.2 will be the last full release of the "Old Plots", and the 0.6 minor will be only small bug fixes.
- All new development should target 0.7 (recipes and subplots)!

## 0.7 (WIP on tb_recipes/dev and master)

- Revamped and simplified internals
- [Recipes, recipes, recipes](https://github.com/JuliaPlots/RecipesBase.jl/issues/6)
- [Layouts and Subplots](https://github.com/tbreloff/Plots.jl/issues/60)

## Version 0.6

#### 0.6.2

- `linewidth` fixes
- `markershape` fix
- converted center calc to centroid for shapes
- new dependency on [RecipesBase](https://github.com/JuliaPlots/RecipesBase.jl)
- REQUIRE upper limit for RecipesBase: 0.0.1
- GR fixes/improvements (@jheinen)
  - support `zlims`, `bins`
  - allow Plots colormaps
  - other bug fixes
  - native image support
- PGFPlots fixes/improvements (@pkofod)
- DataFrames are handled by recipes
- Plotly: zaxis, tick rotation, 3d axis fix
- Improvements in handling discrete data
- Support for image display
- `arrow` keyword and support for adding arrows to paths
- changed quiver recipe to use arrows
- Bug fixes for boxplots, heatmaps, and more

#### 0.6.1

- `rotation` keyword
- improved supported graphs
- subplot bug fix

#### 0.6.0

- `apply_series_recipe` framework for built-in recipes
- [boxplot/violin recipes](https://github.com/tbreloff/ExamplePlots.jl/blob/master/notebooks/boxplot.ipynb)
- [errorbar/ribbon recipes](https://github.com/tbreloff/ExamplePlots.jl/blob/master/notebooks/errorbars.ipynb)
- [quiver recipe](https://github.com/tbreloff/ExamplePlots.jl/blob/master/notebooks/quiver.ipynb)
- `polar` coordinates
- better support for shapes and custom polygons (see [batman](https://github.com/tbreloff/ExamplePlots.jl/blob/master/notebooks/batman.ipynb))
- z-axis keywords
- 3D indexing overhaul: `push!`, `append!` support
- matplotlib colormap constants (`:inferno` is the new default colormap for Plots)
- `typealias KW Dict{Symbol,Any}` used in place of splatting in many places
- png generation for plotly backend using wkhtmltoimage
- `normalize` and `weights` keywords
- background/foreground subcategories for fine-tuning of looks
- `add_theme`/`set_theme` and ggplot2 theme (see [this issue](https://github.com/tbreloff/Plots.jl/issues/201))
- `PLOTS_DEFAULT_BACKEND` environment variable
- `barh` linetype
- support for non-gridded surfaces with pyplot's trisurface
- pyplot surface zcolor
- internal refactor of supported.jl
- `wrap` method to bypass input processing
- `translate`, `scale` and `rotate` methods for coordinates and shapes
- and many more minor fixes and improvements

#### 0.5.4

- old heatmaps have been renamed to hist2d, and true heatmaps implemented (see https://github.com/tbreloff/Plots.jl/issues/147)
- lots of reorganization and redesign of the internals
- lots of renaming to keep to conventions: AbstractPlot, AbstractBackend, etc
- initial redesign of layouts
- integration with Atom PlotPane
- arc diagram and chord diagram (thanks to @diegozea: see https://github.com/tbreloff/Plots.jl/issues/163)
- work on GR, GLVisualize, and PGFPlots backends (thanks @jheinen @dlfivefifty @pkofod)
- improvements to Plotly setup (thanks @spencerlyon2)
- overhaul to series creation logic and groupby mechanic
- replace Dict with `typealias KW Dict{Symbol,Any}` in many places, also replacing keyword arg splatting
- new `shape` linetype for plotting polygons in plot-coordinates (see https://github.com/tbreloff/ExamplePlots.jl/blob/master/notebooks/batman.ipynb)
- many other fixes

#### 0.5.3

- `@gif` macro with `every`/`when` syntax
- bezier curves and other graph drawing helpers
- added FixedSizeArrays dependency with relevant functionality
- merged lots of improvements to GR (thanks @jheinen)
- `overwrite_figure`/`reuse` arg for reusing the same figure window
- deprecated Qwt, Winston, and Bokeh backends
- improved handling of 3D inputs (call `z=rand(10,10); surface(z)` for example)
- fix IJulia display issue
- lots of progress on PlotlyJS backend
- and many other changes and fixes...

#### 0.5.2

- Added [GR.jl](https://github.com/jheinen/GR.jl) as a backend (unfinished but functional) All credit to @jheinen
- Set defaults within backend calls (i.e. `gadfly(legend=false)`)
- `abline!`; also extrema allows plotting functions without giving x (i.e. `plot(cos, 0, 10); plot!(sin)`) @pkofod @joshday
- Integration with [PlotlyJS.jl](https://github.com/spencerlyon2/PlotlyJS.jl) for using Plotly inside a Blink window @spencerlyon2
- The Plotly backend has been split into my built-in version (`plotly()`) and @spencerlyon2's backend (`plotlyjs()`)
- Revamped backend setup code for easily adding new backends
- New docs (WIP) at http://plots.readthedocs.org/
- Overhaul to `:legend` keyword (see https://github.com/tbreloff/Plots.jl/issues/135)
- New dependency on Requires, allows auto-loading of DataFrames support
- Support for plotting lists of Tuples and FixedSizeArrays
- new `@animate` macro for super simple animations (see https://github.com/tbreloff/Plots.jl/issues/111#issuecomment-181515616)
- allow Function for `:fillrange` and `zcolor` arguments (for example: `scatter(sin, 0:10, marker=15, fill=(cos,0.4), zcolor=sin)`)
- allow vectors of PlotText without x/y coords (for example: `scatter(rand(10), m=20, ann=map(text, 1:10))`)
- Lots and lots of fixes

#### 0.5.1

#### 0.5.0

- `with` function for temporary defaults
- contours
- basic 3D plotting
- preliminary support for Bokeh
- `stroke` and `brush` for more fine-tuned control over visuals
- smarter "magic" arguments: `line`, `marker`