[IPython-dev] Temporarily suspending matplotlib inline backend

[Tiago Antao]

Hi,

I have developing some notebooks to teach population genetics, and in
order to spice-up some content for students I would like to generate a
few animations in run-time (from PCA changes over time - this is faster
than it seems). For that I need to generate a few matplotlib figures
'off-line' and then generate an animation with some extra images (i.e.,
I do not want the figures showing on the notebook: I will collect them
as PNGs and generate an MP4 - I do not want want to use
matplotlib.animation, BTW).

I was wondering if there is a safe way to switch backends on server
code (e.g. to Agg and them back to whatever is the default)? I have a
look at the ipython source, and I am a bit afraid of potential side
effects of a backend change.

Thanks,
Tiago