Summary
ggsql resolves exactly one scale — and one break set — per aesthetic, including for a facet dimension declared free. The Vega-Lite writer therefore pins the global break set as axis.values even where it has delegated the domain to Vega, so each free panel shows only whichever global breaks happen to fall inside it — frequently one, or none.
While this issue is about the breaks specifically, it also points to a deficiency in our ggsql <-> writer contract. Specifically for faceted plots with free scales we are currently letting the writer calculate range, breaks etc for the free scales. This really belongs in ggsql which should resolve the scale to an array somehow (VegaLite might not be able to consume that but Hephaestus can)
Reproduction
VISUALISE Date AS x, Temp AS y FROM ggsql:airquality
DRAW line
FACET Month SETTING free => 'x'
resolve: {'scale': {'x': 'independent'}} # domain correctly delegated to Vega
scale: {'zero': False} # no domain, as intended
values: ['1973-04-23', '1973-05-21', '1973-06-18', '1973-07-16', '1973-08-13', '1973-09-10']
Those six breaks span the whole year, but each panel covers one month — so a panel gets at most one of them.
Why it belongs in core
Both writers currently work around the missing per-panel resolution, in different places and with different results:
- Vega-Lite delegates the domain to Vega (
resolve.scale: independent) but still pins global break values on top of it.
- hephaestus computes the per-panel extent itself in
scales::free_position_scale / free_binned_scale, applying ggsql's own Scale::expand_range factors — this is the one remaining piece of writer-side domain computation, and it exists solely because core resolves nothing per panel.
Resolving per-panel domains and breaks for a free facet dimension in core fixes the Vega-Lite tick problem and removes the hephaestus writer's architectural exception in one go.
Summary
ggsql resolves exactly one scale — and one break set — per aesthetic, including for a facet dimension declared
free. The Vega-Lite writer therefore pins the global break set asaxis.valueseven where it has delegated the domain to Vega, so each free panel shows only whichever global breaks happen to fall inside it — frequently one, or none.While this issue is about the breaks specifically, it also points to a deficiency in our ggsql <-> writer contract. Specifically for faceted plots with free scales we are currently letting the writer calculate range, breaks etc for the free scales. This really belongs in ggsql which should resolve the scale to an array somehow (VegaLite might not be able to consume that but Hephaestus can)
Reproduction
Those six breaks span the whole year, but each panel covers one month — so a panel gets at most one of them.
Why it belongs in core
Both writers currently work around the missing per-panel resolution, in different places and with different results:
resolve.scale: independent) but still pins global break values on top of it.scales::free_position_scale/free_binned_scale, applying ggsql's ownScale::expand_rangefactors — this is the one remaining piece of writer-side domain computation, and it exists solely because core resolves nothing per panel.Resolving per-panel domains and breaks for a free facet dimension in core fixes the Vega-Lite tick problem and removes the hephaestus writer's architectural exception in one go.