make hist histype='step' return list of container instead list of list

[piti118]

so that the last return value of hist can be used in legend consistently between 'bar' and 'step'
remake of PR #813

[mdboom]

Sorry this has sat here for so long -- I'm going back through a number of PR's today.

This looks good. Since it changes the API in a backward incompatible way, can you add a CHANGELOG entry?

[pelson]

The real fix to this problem would be for plt.fill to return a Container instance. @mdboom & @leejjoon: Would that be backwards compatible & palatable?

[efiring]

@pelson, @mdboom, is there a reason this has not been merged yet?

[pelson]

I don't really have an issue with this PR as it is. However, my outstanding question (depending on the answer) might provide a better all-round solution (I assume you would then be able to "legend" the result of plt.fill too).

[piti118]

I want to revive this PR.

I took a quick grep at the axes.py and it seems like the only place axes.fill gets used is in axes.hist.
I agree with what @pelson said, the better solution is to fix axes.fill.

I can close this PR and open another one with axes.fill fix. What do you think?

[pelson]

I had a quick look at this yesterday. I have a branch (not quite ready for the big time) here: https://github.com/pelson/matplotlib/tree/fill_as_a_collection

@piti118 : Feel free to take a look at that and work from that point if it is helpful.

Cheers,

[pelson]

PR is 2 years old so I'm closing it. Please feel free to update and re-invigorate this PR and it can be re-opened.

Thanks,