Re: [Matplotlib-users] Exact semantics of ion()??

[Eric F. <ef...@ha...>]

On 06/07/2011 11:46 AM, Benjamin Root wrote:
> On Saturday, June 4, 2011, Eric Firing<ef...@ha...>  wrote:
>>
>>
>> https://github.com/efiring/matplotlib/blob/faq_show_draw/doc/faq/usage_faq.rst
>>
>> Eric, Ben,
>>
>> See if the section "What is interactive mode" makes sense to you.  I have just added it to a feature branch (which includes some other faq madifications, mainly moving the backend section from installation to usage), but have not yet generated a pull request.  It doesn't go into every detail, or into the underlying machinery.  It is intended to provide just enough understanding to clear up user-level confusion about interactive mode, show, and draw, and let most relatively new users get on with their work.
>>
>> Eric
>>
>
> Eric,
>
> I see where you are going with this, and this is valuable information
> to include in the docs. However, the interactive mode and backend info
> doesn't seem to fit properly with everything else on the page.  I am

I don't see why not.  A FAQ is a place for answers to questions, and 
this is the usage section of the FAQ, so I don't see any inherent reason 
why information about backends and interactive mode, both of which 
involve mpl usage, can't go there.  There may be better places, to which 
the FAQ could refer, but I think the FAQ is better than nothing.  I 
moved the backend piece from the installation part of the FAQ, where it 
*really* didn't belong.  (And the remaining installation part is also an 
out-of-date worm jar.)

> not sure where to put them yet, but I will see if I can take a deeper
> look tomorrow.  I also already noticed some other wording issues in
> some other parts of that page.
>
> Ben Root

What you will also find is that the section users/shell.rst, which threw 
Eric L for a loop in the first place, badly needs updating, and overlaps 
with what I was trying to do in the FAQ.  As Eric also points out, a 
section with more detail would probably be good somewhere; I was 
thinking of putting that in the FAQ also, at least as a first step.

My github branch now includes a changeset with augmented docstrings for 
show and draw.

Eric