title: Interactive matplotlib through Eclipse PyDev
body: <p>This is a follow up to this <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3918889/interactive-matplolib-through-eclipse">interactive matplolib through eclipse</a> thread which is about 2 years old, I was wondering if there has been any progress in the meantime.</p>
  
  <p>I am running the IPython console in a console window in Eclipse PyDev, but I am unable to get the same interactive plotting features with matplotlib as if I were to run IPython in a (Windows) command prompt <strong>outside</strong> Eclipse PyDev. Here is how the two compare:</p>
  
  <p><strong>A) Running IPython in a shell outside Eclipse PyDev</strong></p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Run IPython in a Windows command prompt with "ipython --pylab"</li>
  <li>Within the IPython console enter "plot([1,2,3])". This will open a figure plot window and the IPython console is ready for further commands (without having to close the figure plot window).</li>
  <li>For example, I can enter "xlabel('years')" and this will update my figure plot window.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><strong>B) Running IPython in an interactive console within Eclipse PyDev</strong>
  Enter the following in the IPython interactive console within Eclipse PyDev:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>"from pylab import *"</li>
  <li>"plot([1,2,3])" --> Figure plot window does not show up.</li>
  <li>I have to enter "show()" to open the figure plot window. But now the problem is that as long as I keep the figure plot window open, the IPython console does not accept any new commands.</li>
  <li>So I close the figure plot window, enter "xlabel('years')", followed by "show()" again. This will re-open the figure plot window with "years" as my axis label, but the plot itself is empty and does not show the [1,2,3] data anymore.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>With this behaviour, A) is clearly superior to B), but I would like to keep working in Eclipse PyDev because I like always having the variables list on my screen (without having to run a command to show all variables like when running IPython form a windows shell). Using Wicked Shell, as suggested in the other thread, does not work (IPython does not work properly in Wicked Shell).</p>
  
  <p>How can I configure IPython in Eclipse PyDev so that it shows the same interactive behavior as if I would run it in a windows command prompt?</p>