better axis command?

As you know, in MATLAB, axis([-inf inf 0 10]) means that
the range of x-axis is determined automatically while
the range of y-axis is set manually to the range from 0 to 10.

In current Matplotlib, it seems there is no support for that kind of
partial range setting.
If so, how about adding a little intelligence on the axis function, like

axis([None, None, 0, 10]).

And, any specific reason there is no xlim or ylim function?

···

--
Daehyok Shin (Peter)
Geography Department
Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill