Thread: [Matplotlib-users] funny bug with greek letters

  Hi list,
when I do:
hist(randn(100)); xlabel('$\gamma$')
things work as expected.
However, if I try:
hist(randn(100)); xlabel('$\beta$')
then either I get an error, or I get the label "eta" under the plot.
Other letters seem to trigger this: tau, alpha, rho, maybe others.
This problems wether text.usetex is set to True or not (in matplolibrc file).

Version: 0.98.5.2 (Ubuntu Jaunty, ipython 0.9.1 shell).

Has anyone had the same problem, and is there any fix?
Sorry if this has been reported before, I tried to find it, but
nothing came out.

Thanks in advance

-- 
________________________________________________________
Nicolas Chopin
ENSAE
3, Avenue Pierre Larousse
92245 Malakoff CEDEX
FRANCE
tel +33 1 41 17 65 22 | fax +33 1 41 17 38 52
http://www.crest.fr/pageperso/Nicolas.Chopin/Nicolas.Chopin.htm

In [162]: print "$\beta$"
eta$

In [163]: print r"$\beta$"
$\beta$

use the raw sting for math expression.
Regards,

-JJ


On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 12:06 PM, Nicolas
Chopin<nic...@br...> wrote:
>  Hi list,
> when I do:
> hist(randn(100)); xlabel('$\gamma$')
> things work as expected.
> However, if I try:
> hist(randn(100)); xlabel('$\beta$')
> then either I get an error, or I get the label "eta" under the plot.
> Other letters seem to trigger this: tau, alpha, rho, maybe others.
> This problems wether text.usetex is set to True or not (in matplolibrc file).
>
> Version: 0.98.5.2 (Ubuntu Jaunty, ipython 0.9.1 shell).
>
> Has anyone had the same problem, and is there any fix?
> Sorry if this has been reported before, I tried to find it, but
> nothing came out.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> --
> ________________________________________________________
> Nicolas Chopin
> ENSAE
> 3, Avenue Pierre Larousse
> 92245 Malakoff CEDEX
> FRANCE
> tel +33 1 41 17 65 22 | fax +33 1 41 17 38 52
> http://www.crest.fr/pageperso/Nicolas.Chopin/Nicolas.Chopin.htm
>
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thanks a lot! I did not know about raw strings, sorry, even Python has
its black corners, I guess.
funny \gamma works, though.
On a related note, usetex=True is fancy, but produce much bigger eps
files for me, so I stick with the standard mathtex rendering.
Thanks again
Nicolas


2009/9/4 Nicolas Chopin <nic...@br...>:
>  Hi list,
> when I do:
> hist(randn(100)); xlabel('$\gamma$')
> things work as expected.
> However, if I try:
> hist(randn(100)); xlabel('$\beta$')
> then either I get an error, or I get the label "eta" under the plot.
> Other letters seem to trigger this: tau, alpha, rho, maybe others.
> This problems wether text.usetex is set to True or not (in matplolibrc file).
>
> Version: 0.98.5.2 (Ubuntu Jaunty, ipython 0.9.1 shell).
>
> Has anyone had the same problem, and is there any fix?
> Sorry if this has been reported before, I tried to find it, but
> nothing came out.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> --
> ________________________________________________________
> Nicolas Chopin
> ENSAE
> 3, Avenue Pierre Larousse
> 92245 Malakoff CEDEX
> FRANCE
> tel +33 1 41 17 65 22 | fax +33 1 41 17 38 52
> http://www.crest.fr/pageperso/Nicolas.Chopin/Nicolas.Chopin.htm
>



-- 
________________________________________________________
Nicolas Chopin
ENSAE
3, Avenue Pierre Larousse
92245 Malakoff CEDEX
FRANCE
tel +33 1 41 17 65 22 | fax +33 1 41 17 38 52
http://www.crest.fr/pageperso/Nicolas.Chopin/Nicolas.Chopin.htm

Nicolas Chopin <nic...@br...> writes:

> funny \gamma works, though.

That's because \g has no special meaning, while e.g. \b means backspace:

http://docs.python.org/reference/lexical_analysis.html#string-literals

> On a related note, usetex=True is fancy, but produce much bigger eps
> files for me, so I stick with the standard mathtex rendering.

It is probably best to use the built-in mathtex, unless you have a
specific reason to use TeX.

-- 
Jouni K. Seppänen
http://www.iki.fi/jks