strange thing inside eps file

Hi, I found something strange inside the eps file create

    > with matplotlib. I used matplotlib to trace a port of a
    > spectra (I used the function plot and axis). I have been
    > very surprise to see that all the spectra was inside the
    > eps file. To see it, I must admit that I did something
    > weird. I create an eps file with matplotlib and I
    > transform the file in svg format with pstoedit and I edit
    > this file with inkscape.

    > I don't know where is the problem but I don't think that
    > it's necessary to have all the point inside the output
    > file, perhaps it's not possible to do anything to change
    > it but that can create some huge file. So if nothing can
    > be done, that will be a good idea to put it in the FAQ to
    > let the users cut their data if needed.

This is intentional, but I can see the problems it could create for a
large PS file, so it may be worth mentioning this in the
documentation. Basically, we leave it or the backend to do the
clipping to the view limits, and in postscript the total line path is
drawn and the clip rectangle is set. It would be difficult and
inefficient for us to do the clipping in the front end. Think about
pathological cases, for example, where the x,y center of a marker is
far outside the view limits, but the marker is very large so that some
of its vertices are inside the view limits.

Earlier versions of matplotlib had a data clipping feature where line
points outside the view box were removed before adding them to the
backend. But noone ever used it and it added complexity to the code
so I eventually deprecated it.

JDH