The discussion in the comments in two recent AspectRatio
threads (1,2) has highlighted one important aspect of our established way of expressing our thoughts about the Mathematica (or Wolfram Language) functions: we tend to use the names of built-in system Symbol
s instead of the corresponding words of the usual English language. In many cases it allows us to reach wonderful conciseness and exactness of our description at one time. But it also gives a temptation to use names of the Symbol
s outside of their field of use. A good example is PlotRange
option.
The confusion between PlotRange
and "plot range
" has historical prerequisite: before version 6 there was no PlotRangePadding
option and PlotRange
was widely used interchangeably with "plot range
" because they actually meant the same. Starting from version 6, the situation has changed but in many places in the Documentation we still read statements that were not updated since version 5.
Today PlotRange
option along with PlotRangePadding
option determines the range of values of coordinates included inside of the Frame
of the final graphics (even if it is switched off by Frame->False
).
The terms "plot range
" and "plot area
" were used long time before version 6 came out where the functions PlotRangePadding
and ImagePadding
were introduced. At that time the confusion between PlotRange
, plot range
and plot area
was not possible because all of them meant the same: the area on the plot where graphical primitives can potentially be displayed. But now a new user of Mathematica faces a problem similar to the chicken and egg problem: the Documentation mixes definitions which are valid for different versions and makes it impossible to formulate in clear words even basic concepts of the language.
For example, what means the term "plot area
"? The area where graphical primitives can potentially be displayed? But with PlotRangeClipping->False
the graphical primitives which lie in the area determined by ImagePadding
option will be shown what is outside of plot range
.
It is logical that under PlotRange
we should understand only value of this option, not the complete plot range
. I feel natural to say that PlotRangePadding
increases the plot range
but not the value of the PlotRange
option which remains the same as can be verified by applying Options[#, PlotRange]&
. But I am not sure what currently we should understand under "plot area
". What term should I use if I want to say about the full area where graphical primitives can potentially be displayed (which includes both PlotRangePadding
and ImagePadding
)?
I feel that our language when we speak about Mathematica should be regularized in some way. What do you think about it?
AspectRatio
says that it determines the height-to-width of thePlotRange
, not "plot range", so at the end of the day I agree with you, that the documentation in the strictest sense is not correct.