Why doesn't "x" work with cartopy/basemap plots? #131

I recently received an email with some questions on formatting cartopy/basemap axes, so I thought I'd put my response here so I can refer to it for other users.

Q: Why doesn't "label sharing" work with cartopy/basemap axes? In this example:

f,axs = plot.subplots(ncols=2,axwidth=3,proj='pcarree',
                      share=3,order='F',axpad='1em')

axs.format(land=True,labels=True,suptitle='Climatology BLT',
           lonlim=(105,121),latlim=(3,23),lonlines=5,latlines=5,
           landcolor='gray',grid=False)

we get latitude/longitude labels on every side.

A: Sharing meridion and parallel labels is not yet supported. However there is an open feature request: #79

Q: How can I change the tick label location on cartopy/basemap axes? Changing tickdir doesn't work:

axs.format(geoaxesedgecolor='red',tickdir='in',
           suptitlecolor='blue',suptitlesize=30,
           )

A: The tickdir keyword is another rc setting that has no effect on cartopy/basemap axes. If you want to change the meridian/parallel label location, use the lonlabels and latlabels keywords (see this page for details).