This has been a known issue, and I think the only reason why it hasn't been done is that none of us knew how to do it properly.

I will let other confirm this is not too unproper. :)
So far I was working around it by using pyobjc:

from AppKit import NSApplication

and issuing just before show():

NSApplication.sharedApplication().activateIgnoringOtherApps_(True)
pylab.show()

It worked, but the pull request should achieve the same thing within the macosx backend show() method.

I just tried a checkout from @gellule's master fork to see if it fixed #665. There was no change in the behavior I see in #665, but also the plot window was not raised to the foreground.

@jiffyclub: If I read #665 correctly, you are in interactive mode. My pull request only raises the plot window if in non-interactive mode. Are you expecting from the show() command that it also yields the focus to the plot window in interactive mode?

@gellule, I am not in interactive mode. I'm using plt.show() and I don't see any difference using your pull request and using the matplotlib main code.

@jiffyclub Thanks for the answer. #665 does not seem related to the current pull request. But because of #665 (comment), and because you are the only person (that I know of) who tried my branch, could you please check that you are using the version of matplotlib you pulled from my branch? Maybe with a:

import pylab
print(pylab.__file__)

Thanks.

@gellule the command I used to install was pip install git+git://github.com/gellule/matplotlib.git.

Out of curiosity, are you using Lion? I suspect the problems I'm having with #665 are Lion related and not seeing the expected behavior here is probably also a Lion effect. But if you're using Lion it's back to the drawing board on that idea.

@jiffyclub I just wanted to make sure that either you had one copy of matplotlib installed, or were using the correct one.

I am also on Lion. However, I'm getting python and others (including matplotlib) from macports. Except for my matplotlib checkout that I use locally.

Looks like this pull request could be... pulled? :)
At least one person tested the change successfully, as reported on the matplotlib-devel mailing list.

I guess we could pull it and see what others think. I guess a partial solution is better than none at all? Any objections Mike?

Thank you!
This pull request is now replaced by #741: closing.