Merge pull request matplotlib#1186 from dmcdougall/arrow

Make default arrowhead width more sensible

Author: pelson

doc/api/api_changes.rst

@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ For new features that were added to matplotlib, please see
 Changes in 1.3.x
 ================
 
+* In :class:`~matplotlib.patches.FancyArrow`, the default arrow head width,
+  ``head_width``, has been made larger to produce a visible arrow head. The new
+  value of this kwarg is ``head_width = 20 * width``.
+
 * Removed call of :meth:`~matplotlib.axes.Axes.grid` in
   :meth:`~matplotlib.pyplot.plotfile`. To draw the axes grid, set to *True*
   matplotlib.rcParams['axes.grid'] or ``axes.grid`` in ``.matplotlibrc`` or

lib/matplotlib/patches.py

@@ -1021,7 +1021,7 @@ def __init__(self, x, y, dx, dy, width=0.001, length_includes_head=False,
 
         """
         if head_width is None:
-            head_width = 3 * width
+            head_width = 20 * width
         if head_length is None:
             head_length = 1.5 * head_width