4

EDIT: This seems to be a problem restricted to Tcl/Tk on Mac OS systems. So if you have no experience with that, this topic might be moot...

I want to have a Python script that does two things:

  1. Ask the user for a file name via a Tkinter file dialog.
  2. Plot some data from said file.

The problem is, matplotlib uses Tkinter for the graphical representations, and whenever I call pyplot.show() in non-interactive mode, the (before closed) file dialog pops up again. It seems to me like pyplot.show() gathers a list of all Tkinter windows and shows them all. I did not find any help on this however. I tried for both Python 2.7 and 3.3, since a lot of the Tkinter module seems to have changed, but it's the same phenomenon. The slightly strange workaround I came up with is to go into matplotlib interactive mode and then keep the windows open with a raw_input() command.

Here is a minimal code snippet that works in Python 2 and 3 to show the problem:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# import Tkinter GUI (changes from Python 2.x to 3.x)
try:
    import Tkinter
except (ImportError):
    import tkinter as Tkinter
try:
    from tkFileDialog import askopenfilename
except (ImportError):
    from tkinter.filedialog import askopenfilename

root = Tkinter.Tk()
root.withdraw()

input_filename = askopenfilename(master=root)

# This seemed promising, but it doesn't help
root.destroy()

plt.figure()

# uncommenting this to switch to interactive mode is a workaround
#plt.ion()
plt.show()

# Python 2.x and 3.x compatible wait for input:
try: input = raw_input
except NameError: pass
# Wait for keystroke (for interactive mode)
input("Press enter when done...")

I'm sorry if I'm missing something obvious here, I am not that well-versed in Python, and I did not find satisfying information on this problem. But my gutt tells me there has to be a simple and elegant solution for this.

System information (most recent versions I tried):

  • Python 3.3 (from MacPorts)
  • matplotlib 1.3.x (built from github master)
  • Mac OS X 10.8.3
  • Tcl/Tk 8.6.0 (from MacPorts)

Thanks,

Floh

Florian Fahrenberger
  • 51
  • 3
  • no repro for me on `matplotlib.__version__ == '1.3.x'` ... try updating if you're on an old version? – wim Apr 23 '13 at 06:53
  • Sorry, I forgot to mention (since it might be important, especially when using Tkinter): I have mostly tried this on Mac OS 10.8.3 with matplotlib 1.2.0 pre-built from MacPorts. I will try to get it running on my Linux machine. I'll try to update matplotlib then. I will have to compile it manually and update all Python module dependencies though, so it might take a while. Thanks. – Florian Fahrenberger Apr 23 '13 at 07:30
  • Hm. There isn't even an official "1.3.x" version tag for matplotlib yet. I am now cloning the github master branch, but I am not sure this is the way to go. – Florian Fahrenberger Apr 23 '13 at 07:49
  • Yeah, that's how I installed it. – wim Apr 23 '13 at 08:00
  • Nope, sorry. Problem persists with Python 3.3 and matplotlib 1.3.x on MacOSX with Tk 8.6.0. I will put the version information into the original post, thanks for reminding me. – Florian Fahrenberger Apr 23 '13 at 08:12
  • I am having some trouble with our Tkinter module on Linux (and I am not administrator on the machines), so I can't test it. But: It works fine on Windows with the EPD, and @wim can't reproduce the problem (on Linux, I assume?). So it seems like an issue with the Mac OS Tcl/Tk. – Florian Fahrenberger Apr 23 '13 at 09:26
  • @FlorianFahrenberger have you solved your problem? I have the same question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24660578/repeated-dialog-window-with-tkinter-and-matplotlib-on-mac-os-x – drastega Jul 13 '14 at 16:20

0 Answers0