Clarify effect of axis(equal) on explicit data limits

timhoffm · timhoffm · commit fc0a8a766fee · 2019-08-11T21:08:19.000+02:00
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
@@ -1577,7 +1577,9 @@ def axis(self, *args, emit=True, **kwargs):
             'on'     Turn on axis lines and labels. Same as ``True``.
             'off'    Turn off axis lines and labels. Same as ``False``.
             'equal'  Set equal scaling (i.e., make circles circular) by
-                     changing axis limits.
+                     changing axis limits. This is the same as
+                     ``ax.set_aspect('equal', adjustable='datalim')``.
+                     Explicit data limits may not be respected in this case.
             'scaled' Set equal scaling (i.e., make circles circular) by
                      changing dimensions of the plot box, then disable further
                      autoscaling.
