plotting without ticks -- bug?

Hi all,

I'm trying to get some figures ready, but I've encountered what may be a bug demonstrated by a trivial program:

from matplotlib.matlab import *

set(gca(),'XTicks',[]) # fails
plot([1,2],[3,4])
#set(gca(),'XTicks',[]) # works
show()

The traceback is:

astraw@...198...:~/src/py-play/matplotlib$ python no_ticks.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "no_ticks.py", line 4, in ?
    plot([1,2],[3,4])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/matplotlib/matlab.py", line 1074, in plot
    try: lines = gca().plot(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/matplotlib/axes.py", line 1361, in plot
    self.autoscale_view()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/matplotlib/axes.py", line 426, in autoscale_view
    tup = self.xaxis.get_major_locator().autoscale()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/matplotlib/ticker.py", line 321, in autoscale
    raise NotImplementedError('Derived must override')
NotImplementedError: Derived must override

This trivial example works if I call set() after plot() although this is sometimes inconvenient. Is this a bug or are there some intricacies I'm not aware of?

Cheers!
Andrew