title: draw matplotlib rectangle patch with infinite length
body: <p>I can't seem to find a way to draw a rectangle patch with infinite side length in matplotlib, nor can I find any documentation or conversations as to whether there is a way to do this.</p>
  
  <p>basically:</p>
  
  <pre><code>from matplotlib.patches import Rectangle
  import numpy as np
  x_min = 0
  x_range = 1
  y_min = -np.inf
  y_range = np.inf
  Rectangle((x_min, y_min), x_range, y_range)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I realize that inf - inf in numpy returns nan, and that this is probably computed at some point.</p>
  
  <p>Anyway, looking at the code for Rectangle didn't get me any closer to a solution, so I thought I'd check and see if anyone on here can think of a way around it.</p>