Example: I graph a temperature input, using auto-scale on Y. The end-customer complains that the temperature suddenly started rising at the wrong time. I try (futily) to explain that the rise was only 0.01 degrees, but the scale on the graph expands it to fill the screen. Then someone else comes in, and we repeat the conversation.
What I'd like is a feature to keep auto-scale, but set the minimum span. For example, set the minimum span to 10 degrees:
The story is similar for integer charts. Too often, a value is on the bottom of the chart, or on the top, and all you see easily are vertical lines
With an auto-scale-min-span of 1.1, it would look better:
I use a lot of very generic programming, so may not know if I should set the minimum span to 1.1 for boolean values. For that case, it would be great to have a feature that makes the auto-scale go X% beyond the min & max values. In this case 5% would give the results above.
One more feature (one I've written programmatically, and it's a MAJOR pain): set auto-scale to only scale up if the data is less than 50% of the current span, and scale down as needed (but over-shoot to anticipate more scaling). It's irritating to watch a graph constantly scaling up and down, especially an XY graph.
And finally (I've also done this programmatically, and it would be tough to make automatic): lock several chart scales together. If an operator changes scale on one XY graph, the others change to match.
