matplotlib kwarg de-aliasing helper function

[OriolAbril]

Tell us about it

There are many kwarg arguments in matplotlib that accept an alias, which can get quite messy when ArviZ sets default values for them. I propose to pass the kwarg dicts through this helper function and then always work internally with the complete name.

Thoughts on implementation

Use a matplotlib internal function if it exists? Otherwise we should create one (or several, see note).

Note: some aliases are not universal like the case of color and c in a scatter plot.

References that may (or not) be useful: Line2D properties and Collection properties

[percygautam]

I'll like to work on this one!

[percygautam]

I found the kwarg normalization in matplotlib here. This function is then used like this here to set properties.
Are we looking for something like this? I think we can create a helper function which calls this normalize_kwargs function from matplotlib and will set properties( as is done in case of matplotlib).

[ahartikainen]

Yes, something similar.

[percygautam]

Hey, I was working some examples in the cookbook. Can you please confirm this is what we are looking for.
Also, Should we create multiple de-aliaser dicts or just add all in one ? Even if user add some wrong kwarg, matplotlib can handle the errors.

[percygautam]

@ahartikainen Should I make different functions for scatter plots and other plots, or use conditionals in one function?
Also, how to deal with plot_kwargs of compareplot where we are explicitely defining them like marker_ic and marker_dse?