matplotlib in interactive mode locks when run from subprocess

[Almar Klein]

To who cares, I found out what my problem was.

Testing interactivity with Tk in a normal Python console gave proper
results, just like IPython. Also running "python -i" gives the
interactive behaviour I wanted. But running "python -i" from a subprocess
did not. I was startled, because it worked out of the box with Python!

I read somewhere that Tkinter does not need a mainloop, which should be
true in order to have the interactive behaviour in python without a second
thread. Well, tk does indeed not need a mainloop, but you DO need to
create a tk app and call update() on it from time to time. (Which makes
sense now that I know it :) )

After examing code from IPython, I saw that it runs code to start a Tk app,
and performs tk.update().

So I guess this means that the standard python shell creates such a
"hidden tk app", but NOT when run from a subprocess.

I have now solved my problem, and interactivity works!

Almar




2008/9/20 Almar Klein <almar.klein at gmail.com>

> I think my question was not very clear. I narrowed the problem down to
> a reconstructable small example, consisting of a python script (a very
> simple interpreter) and three lines to execute in it:
>
> ========== start simple interpreter file ======
> import os
> import sys
> import time
>
> def run():
>     while True:
>
>         # read a line of text, the thread is stuck here untill a \n is
>         # fed to the stream.
>         time.sleep(0.1)
>         line = ""
>         try:
>             line = sys.stdin.readline()
>         except Exception, why:
>             sys.stdout.wite(why.message+"\n")
>
>         if line:
>             try:
>                 code = compile(line,"<none>","exec")
>                 exec(code)
>             except Exception, why:
>                 sys.stderr.write(why.message)
>             sys.stderr.write(">>> ")
>
> if __name__ == "__main__":
>     run()
>
> ========== end of file ==============
>
> Now I run this file (by double clicking it) and I get a prompt. The three
> lines I type in are:
> import matplotlib.pylab as pl
> pl.ion() #interactive mode on
> pl.plot([1,2,3],[4,6,5])
>
> This produces a tk window, but it's unresponsive. The process does have 5
> threads, so
> matplotlib managed to create the threads, but it seems as if they're
> blocked.
>
> When I run the three lines of code in a normal python shell, I get the
> proper results:
> a responsive figure (I can zoom and pan) and my shell is still responsive
> too.
>
> I am in the dark why this does not work. Any thoughts anyone? I've been
> busy all day
> trying to get this right, with hardly any progress... :(
>
> Almar
>
> PS: I run windows xp, my matplotlibrc file has the backend: TkAgg,
> interactive: True
>
>
> 2008/9/18 Almar Klein <almar.klein at gmail.com>
>
> Hi,
>>
>> In wxpython, I made an interactive shell, which creates a remote python
>> subprocess
>> to do the interpreting. Communication is done via a pipe. The idea is that
>> the python
>> session is an actual process separate from the GUI, which has some
>> advantages,
>> like I can have multiple such shells in my application, and I can kill
>> them without
>> worrying that my wx app will crash.
>>
>> To do this I use the wx.Process class, which allows asynchronous
>> communication with
>> the remote process.
>>
>> This all works really, I will also launch wxpython apps. So I was quite
>> happy, untill I tried
>> doing some plotting with matplotlib (in TkAgg backend). The problem is
>> that the process
>> becomes unresponsive when I plot something (No prompt is written to the
>> stdout/stderr).
>> (more details below)
>>
>> I don't know much about creating subprocess and how they are different
>> from a normal
>> process. So can anyone offer some help as to what the problem might be?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Almar
>>
>> To get to the details:
>> - When I start a process with command "python -u -i"
>>   -- When interactive mode is off, the whole process becomes unresponsive
>> when doing
>>      pylab.show()
>>   -- When interactive mode in on, on doing pylab.plot(), a figure appears,
>> which I can
>>     zoom etc., but the process is now stuck, also after closing the figure
>>
>> - When I start a process with command
>>   "python -u -c 'import code;code.interact(readfunc=raw_input)'"  (This is
>> how Pype does it).
>>   -- When interactive mode is off, the figures show when doing
>> pylab.show() and the process
>>      behaves as normal after closing the figure(s).
>>   -- When interactive mode in on, on doing pylab.plot(), a figure appears,
>> but most of the time
>>      it is not drawn and emmediately unresponsive, just like the process
>> itself.
>>
>> I have also tried an asynchronous Popen recipe by Joshiah Carlson I found
>> on
>> activestate. And I made my own process class using
>> win32process.CreateProcess.
>> Both alternatives to wx.Process resulted in the same sympoms.
>>
>> Oh, and I run windows.
>>
>>
>
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