New rcParams for dates: set converter and whether to use interval_multiples

The new rcParams["date.converter"] (default: None) allows toggling between matplotlib.dates.DateConverter and matplotlib.dates.ConciseDateConverter using the strings 'auto' and 'concise' respectively.

The new rcParams["date.interval_multiples"] (default: None) allows toggling between the dates locator trying to pick ticks at set intervals (i.e. day 1 and 15 of the month), versus evenly spaced ticks that start where ever the timeseries starts:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

dates = np.arange('2001-01-10', '2001-05-23', dtype='datetime64[D]')
y = np.sin(dates.astype(float) / 10)
fig, axs = plt.subplots(nrows=2, constrained_layout=True)

plt.rcParams['date.converter'] = 'concise'
plt.rcParams['date.interval_multiples'] = True
ax = axs[0]
ax.plot(dates, y)

plt.rcParams['date.converter'] = 'auto'
plt.rcParams['date.interval_multiples'] = False
ax = axs[1]
ax.plot(dates, y)

(Source code, png, pdf)