title: Figure Not Responding after returning to console from show()?
body: <p>At first, I wrote</p>
  
  <pre><code>## show the map and all that ##
  def showMap():
      plt.figure()
      plt.imshow(im)
      # draw junctions as squares
      plt.scatter(junctionX, junctionY, marker='s', color='green')
      plt.show()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Then, the interactive console hangs until I close the figure. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9753885/pylab-matplotlib-show-waits-until-window-closes/9754238#9754238">This question gives a solution for this</a>, and I modified my code to</p>
  
  <pre><code>## show the map and all that ##
  def showMap():
      plt.figure()
      plt.imshow(im)
      # draw junctions as squares
      plt.scatter(junctionX, junctionY, marker='s', color='green')
      plt.ion()
      plt.show()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now, indeed I can return to the console and keep running other codes, <strong>but my figure there becomes Non Responding</strong>. How may I fix it?</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>I am using the <a href="http://pytools.codeplex.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Python Tools for Visual Studio</a>, because my project is a mix of a C++ project and a Python one. I have tested exactly the same code in Spyder, and it works perfectly fine there. So I think it is from the differences between IDEs.</p>