[Matplotlib-users] IDLE hangs despite -n

[Hans F. <H.F...@so...>]

Dear all,

I tried to make matplotlib work with IDLE on Windows. I have settled for 
the Enthough Python Edition and the latest matplotlib (both executables 
can be found in www.soton.ac.uk/~fangohr/download/python).

I have prepared the exercises on linux and am now trying to run them in
windows. This is where I realised that matplotlib doesn't work well with
IDLE.

More particularly, it is known that the default backend TkAgg doesn't work
with IDLE (see here http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/backends.html#TkAgg)
but it appears to work with "IDLE -n" (as it says on that web page).

The problem I experience is this:

-start idle
-execute these commands:

   import pylab
   pylab.plot(range(10))
   pylab.show()

This produces a figure window which seems to work fine.

At this point when closing the figure window, I can't get the IDLE
prompt active again. (It seems that IDLE thinks the program and the figure
process are still running, and is waiting for control to return.)

This, in itself, is maybe not suprising. However, the idle -n switch
doesn't seem to solve the problem for me (see below).

The same problem is observed when I execute a program in the IDLE editor
(by pressing F5).

Maybe this is the problem:

I have tried to tell IDLE to start with the "-n" by modifying the properties for the
IDLE link in the start menu from

C:\Python23\pythonw.exe "C:\Python23\Lib\idlelib\idle.pyw"

to

C:\Python23\pythonw.exe "C:\Python23\Lib\idlelib\idle.pyw" "-n"

but this doesn't seem to solve the problem: I get exactly the same
behaviour as described above. Am I doing the right thing?

Can anyone give me some advice?

Many thanks,

Hans


P.S. Funnily enough, there are two Windows machines with a very similar 
software setup, i.e. enthought python plus matplotlib, where the default 
TkAgg interface seems to work happily togethe with IDLE. Unfortunately, 
these are not the ones I am trying to get to work :-|





-------------------------------------------------
Dr Hans Fangohr

Computational Engineering & Design Research Group
School of Engineering Sciences
University of Southampton
Southampton, SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom

Location: Building 25, Room 1027
phone : +44 (0) 23 8059 8345
fax   : +44 (0) 23 8059 7082
email : fa...@so...
-------------------------------------------------