Merge pull request #20220 from tacaswell/doc_mission

DOC: add mission statement

Author: QuLogic

doc/users/project/history.rst

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 .. redirect-from:: /users/history
 
+.. _project_history:
+
 History
 =======
 

doc/users/project/index.rst

@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ Project information
 .. toctree::
     :maxdepth: 2
 
-    license.rst
+    mission.rst
+    history.rst
     citing.rst
+    license.rst
     credits.rst
-    history.rst

doc/users/project/mission.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+Matplotlib Mission Statement
+============================
+
+The Matplotlib developer community develops, maintains, and supports Matplotlib
+and its extensions to provide data visualization tools for the Scientific
+Python Ecosystem.
+
+Adapting the requirements :ref:`laid out by John Hunter <project_history>`
+Matplotlib should:
+
+* Support users of the Scientific Python ecosystem;
+* Facilitate interactive data exploration;
+* Produce high-quality raster and vector format outputs suitable for publication;
+* Provide a simple graphical user interface and support embedding in applications;
+* Be understandable and extensible by people familiar with data processing in Python;
+* Make common plots easy, and novel or complex visualizations possible.
+
+We believe that a diverse developer community creates the best software, and we
+welcome anyone who shares our mission, and our values described in the `code of
+conduct
+<https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md>`__.