Inspired by #14980 (comment).

Current APIs:

pyplot.xticks(ticks=None, labels=None, **kwargs)

Axes.set_xticks(self, ticks, minor=False)
Axes.set_xticklabels(self, labels, fontdict=None, minor=False, **kwargs)

Notes:

• The Axes methods are just thin wrappers around the Axis methods.
• The kwargs are Text properties.

Issue

The Axes API feels a bit odd. AFAICS set_xticklabels does not make much sense without set_xticks before; otherwise how do I know that the labels will be at the correct places and that I have the right number of labels for the ticks.

Proposal

1. Extend the API of set_xticks to be

   Axes.set_xticks(self, ticks, labels=None, minor=False, **kwargs)
   

   maybe even with ticks=None to be compatible with the pyplot API - though I don't know if one needs the ability to set ticks without positions.
2. Soft-deprecate set_xticklabels. It's too widely used to be deprecated, but we shouldn't have two equal ways here.
3. Optionally add the minor kwarg to pyplot.xticks; it's not strictly necessary because pyplot may have less functionality than the OOP interface; but it doesn't hurt either.

The proposed signature would be an API-change because the minor argument might have been passed positionally. Thus, we should start with _make_keyword_only on that parameter.