[python] Is there a way to detach matplotlib plots so that the computation can continue?

I also wanted my plots to display run the rest of the code (and then keep on displaying) even if there is an error (I sometimes use plots for debugging). I coded up this little hack so that any plots inside this with statement behave as such.

This is probably a bit too non-standard and not advisable for production code. There is probably a lot of hidden "gotchas" in this code.

from contextlib import contextmanager

@contextmanager
def keep_plots_open(keep_show_open_on_exit=True, even_when_error=True):
    '''
    To continue excecuting code when plt.show() is called
    and keep the plot on displaying before this contex manager exits
    (even if an error caused the exit).
    '''
    import matplotlib.pyplot
    show_original = matplotlib.pyplot.show
    def show_replacement(*args, **kwargs):
        kwargs['block'] = False
        show_original(*args, **kwargs)
    matplotlib.pyplot.show = show_replacement

    pylab_exists = True
    try:
        import pylab
    except ImportError: 
        pylab_exists = False
    if pylab_exists:
        pylab.show = show_replacement

    try:
        yield
    except Exception, err:
        if keep_show_open_on_exit and even_when_error:
            print "*********************************************"
            print "Error early edition while waiting for show():" 
            print "*********************************************"
            import traceback
            print traceback.format_exc()
            show_original()
            print "*********************************************"
            raise
    finally:
        matplotlib.pyplot.show = show_original
        if pylab_exists:
            pylab.show = show_original
    if keep_show_open_on_exit:
        show_original()

# ***********************
# Running example
# ***********************
import pylab as pl
import time
if __name__ == '__main__':
    with keep_plots_open():
        pl.figure('a')
        pl.plot([1,2,3], [4,5,6])     
        pl.plot([3,2,1], [4,5,6])
        pl.show()

        pl.figure('b')
        pl.plot([1,2,3], [4,5,6])
        pl.show()

        time.sleep(1)
        print '...'
        time.sleep(1)
        print '...'
        time.sleep(1)
        print '...'
        this_will_surely_cause_an_error

If/when I implement a proper "keep the plots open (even if an error occurs) and allow new plots to be shown", I would want the script to properly exit if no user interference tells it otherwise (for batch execution purposes).

I may use something like a time-out-question "End of script! \nPress p if you want the plotting output to be paused (you have 5 seconds): " from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26704840/corner-cases-for-my-wait-for-user-input-interruption-implementation.