function to raise plot window to the front?

[stevengj]

Somewhat related to #596, it would be good to have a function, analogous to Matlab's shg, to bring a desired plot window to the front.

This was discussed on StackOverflow, but the only solution there was to use a raise_ method that seems to be specific to the Qt backend.

[h44rd]

Hello! I would like to contribute to this project and start off with this issue. Since I'm very new to Github and contributing to open source, I would really appreciate some help to get started. Thanks in advance!

[tacaswell]

I do not want to dissuade you from contributing, but this may not be the best starter project as it involves a messy part of the code base and touches multiple GUI toolkits + OS.

[fariza]

Just to keep track of what is already merged

• Gtk Showraise gtk gtk3 #6417
• Gtk3 Showraise gtk gtk3 #6417
• Qt4 ENH: Figure.show() raises figure with qt backends #6384
• Qt5 ENH: Figure.show() raises figure with qt backends #6384
• Tk
• Wx

[jenshnielsen]

For qt4/5 #6384

[fariza]

@h44rd I guess you decided for this particular issue because you have some experience in GUI frameworks.
Am I right?
If yes, try modifying the Tk or Wx backend to raise the window on show.
If you don't have experience with GUI frameworks, I really recommend going for something a little bit less complex to start. Start with the low hanging fruit issues https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22low+hanging+fruit%22

In any case, to get the basics of github + matplotlib development follow http://matplotlib.org/devel/gitwash/git_development.html for me that text was of great help, if you have any questions, don't hesitate, just open another issue an tag me in it, so I will get notified

[stevengj]

For Tk, see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1892339/how-to-make-a-window-jump-to-the-front

[richardsheridan]

@tacaswell despite the comment by @fariza and label from @dstansby this appears to work fine for Tk, also see the current FigureManagerTk which was added with the tkcairo backend.

The GUI/tk label should be removed.

[oscargus]

It seems like this is fixed in Wx as well. If the rcParams figure.raise_window is set, show can be called to raise the window. See #15440