Performance benchmarks:

This is related to #2638 and #2642.

I need to think about the best way forward to address this. Yes, we can add a bunch of if statements as done here. However, I am inclined to see this as an architectural problem. At the moment, we don't distinguish carefully between drawing the space (e.g., the grid structure), the drawing of properties of the space (i.e., property layer portrayal), and the drawing of agents within the space. These are effectively all collapsed into a single draw_space method. I am inclined to redesign the API and explicitly separate these three things slightly. If you pass the same axes (in the case of matplotlib), you can draw them on top of each other, but if you pass separate axes, you can also portray them more cleanly. Any thoughts on this are welcome, preferably in #2642.

I think we should implement an AgentPortrayalStyle class as proposed in #2436 first. Then we can do something similar with the property layer portrayal as well:

class PropertyLayerPortrayal:
    def __init__(self, layer_name, colormap=None, color=None, alpha=1.0, vmin=None, vmax=None):
        self.layer_name = layer_name
        self.colormap = colormap
        self.color = color
        # etc...

And then we can separate the space drawing into three parts. Maybe something like this:

class SpaceRenderer:
    def draw_structure(self, space, ax=None, **kwargs):
       ...
    def draw_properties(self, space, propertylayer_portrayal, ax=None, **kwargs):
       ...
    def draw_agents(self, space, agent_portrayal, ax=None, **kwargs):
       ...

    # Composite method(not the best name)
    def draw_all(self, space, agent_portrayal=None, property_config=None, ax=None, **kwargs):
       ...

But this design may feel complex for beginners while also breaking the current API.

@Sahil-Chhoker I like the direction of thought: encapsulate the portrayal of agents, space, and propertylayers into their own class, have three dedicated draw functions for each of them, and an overarching one that calls each of them. I'll try to find time to hash this out a bit further in the coming days.

But this design may feel complex for beginners while also breaking the current API.

1. I don't know yet whether it will be complex. Ideally it should be simple for default cases yet be powerfull enough to cover whatever you want.
2. the current API is experimental, so we don't have to worry about it too much.
3. As shown in ADDS ALTAIR PLOT COMPONENT AND SOME OTHER FIXES  #2644, its not too difficult to maintain the current API while raising warnings pointing the user to the new API. This should ease transition.

@quaquel, As I'm expecting, does the implementation look like this in your mind?

The space drawer idea you link to was heavily inspired by altair's API. I still like the idea, and I think it is worth exploring further. However, it is also a more radical departure from the current API. Having <class>PortrayalStyle objects might be a simpler solution that is more compatible with the current design, while still eliminating the difficult to memorize dicts and nested dicts. In short, I am not sure.